Flyers takeaways: Trevor Zegras’ knack for the big moment and three other reasons this team has staying power

The Flyers beat the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, 5-2.

But hockey is all about the details. So, as the Flyers hit the halfway mark with a 21-12-7 record, let’s take a look at why the small details from Tuesday night matter in the big picture.

The Flyers forward conceded postgame that he was downplaying how important the game was to him when he spoke to the media earlier in the day.

“It was a tough ending with my time there, and I’ve been thinking about this game for a long time,” said Zegras, who was acquired by the Flyers from the Ducks in June. “It was one that meant a lot to me, and it was cool to get one and then, obviously, two.”

» READ MORE: Trevor Zegras scores twice against his old team in the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Ducks

“Playing against your old team, that kind of shoved you out the door, that third one would have been pretty cool,” he added. “But we got the win, so that’s what matters.”

Despite coming out hard, the Flyers trailed 1-0 after public enemy No. 1, Cutter Gauthier, scored a power-play goal. They needed a boost and got it with Zegras scoring not once, but twice, each via a one-timer from beneath the right circle that coach Rick Tocchet said “looked a little [Leon] Draisaitl-ish.” Indeed.

Zegras is the game-breaker the Flyers have been craving for years. He is someone who can change the course of a game in an instant, pressuring and creating turnovers with his deftness and quick footwork, setting up his teammates with his creativity, or having the drive to find the back of the net.

He’s never played a Stanley Cup playoff game, but that doesn’t mean Zegras has not starred on some of hockey’s biggest stages. The New York native — who said Philly “is home for me” on Tuesday — helped USA Hockey defeat Canada to win gold at World Juniors. He is back to being the guy who dazzled fans when he entered the NHL, and it’s clear he is someone who won’t shy away from strapping the Flyers to his back and carrying them when it matters — maybe in late April?

The Flyers have one of the NHL’s youngest teams, and they might not be giants, but it is clear that they are up to the task of playing the heavy game that successful teams tend to deploy in the postseason.

Typically, a heavy game is described as a physical one in which teams are aggressive on the forecheck, lay big hits, win puck battles, and consistently pressure. Tocchet equates a heavy game to good body positioning and being tough to play against.

If the NHL provided the information on zone time for individual games, the ice would have noticeably been tilted in favor of the Flyers. They outshot the Ducks 39-18, limiting them five shots in each of the first two periods.

And, unlike the Ducks, who seemed to be head-hunting the whole game, the Flyers delivered clean, hard checks.

In the last few games, Owen Tippett has played like a true power forward by using his speed, skill, and 210-pound body to throw huge checks and create time and space for scoring opportunities. He had 10 shot attempts (four shots on goal and five that missed the net) and three hits.

But the player who stood out the most was Garnet Hathaway, who showed why he has been a hot commodity at past trade deadlines when teams want to bulk up for the postseason.

The forward, who was playing in his second game since being a healthy scratch for six, and doesn’t have a point thus far this season, threw several bone-crunching — but legal — hits. He had six hits, including ones on Olen Zellweger and Ian Moore that could be heard vividly in Xfinity Mobile Arena.

» READ MORE: Reevaluating the Flyers-Ducks trades involving Cutter Gauthier, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale

“Garny laying two huge hits,” Cam York said. “That’s playoff hockey, and we feel like we’re a playoff team.”

“[Hathaway] dragged a lot of people in the fight with us,” Tocchet added.

Hathaway ended up dropping the gloves with former Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas after his hit on Moore, and Noah Cates — Noah Cates! — had a tilt of his own with Jansen Harkins after the latter’s high hit on Bobby Brink in the opening minutes. Brink ended up leaving the game with an upper-body injury.

“I don’t know, just kind of, I guess, maybe, speaks to the confidence and strength I kind of put on and different things like that,” said Cates, who joked that the one fight HockeyFights.com has him listed as having, which was in juniors, wasn’t really a fight.

“But, just wanted to defend a teammate. With Bobby [it] looked like a bad hit [but] wasn’t a penalty. ... But I think the boys respect it, and it’s kind of a necessary thing in the game.”

The bench boss liked what he saw Tuesday and if the Flyers play as they did against Anaheim, good things should happen.

Whether skating as a five-man unit or going to bat for one another, the Flyers are united. They cheered when Hathaway and Cates dropped the gloves.

They chirped at Gauthier, who didn’t want to play for the Flyers, and got in his face any chance they could. Aside from Cates going after Harkins, they tried to get at Jacob Trouba and Ross Johnston after they threw high, dirty hits.

And they checked on one another. Travis Konecny was seen going up to Denver Barkey, appearing to ask if he was OK, as he got on the ice for a power play. The power play happened after Trouba went headhunting on him.

» READ MORE: Flyers fans still don’t like Cutter Gauthier. Trevor Zegras has made it sting a little less.

Konecny, 28, has become a true leader in every sense of the word for the Flyers.

“I love the kid. I can understand how [John Tortorella] loves him, too, in the sense of — what did he call him, a wing nut?" Tocchet said. “For me, he does some stuff that you go, ‘What are you doing?’ And then he does some stuff like, wow. So, there’s a balance there.

“But he’s an unreal guy in the room. This is a close team, and I think he’s one of the reasons why, whether it’s a football pool or whether it’s a dinner, he’s leading the brigade, or whether it’s, hey, unacceptable first period, he’s saying it.”

The Flyers are now 12-5-4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena and, for the second straight game, sold out the building.

It’s a major step for a team that hasn’t packed the barn consistently for a while. And from the moment the puck dropped Tuesday, the faithful were into the game.

A lot of the attention was directed at Gauthier, but that didn’t stop them from cheering and booing other aspects.

“The fans were just electric all night,” Christian Dvorak said. “It was a lot of fun.”

“The crowd was outstanding,” said Tocchet, who is in the Flyers Hall of Fame as a player. “I just remember the days when I played; that’s a loud building tonight. They were awesome. I think they really gave our team some juice.”

York said it felt like a playoff atmosphere and that he would “wish it [would] maybe happen more than once a year.” Well, if the Flyers keep playing the way they’re playing, it should.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale ‘still getting evaluated’ after injuries

It did give the players a look into what could be the future. Most of the Flyers have not played in a playoff game, and only Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Sean Couturier were on the roster the last time Philly made the postseason in the 2020 bubble.

“We don’t want to be satisfied here,” Couturier said after the game. “We’ve got to keep pushing, take it to another level. It’s going to be tight till the end of the year. Look at the standings, doesn’t matter if you win one or you lose one, it’s so tight. So we’ve got to focus one game at a time.”

Before the Olympic break, the Flyers play 15 more games. That leaves 26 when the schedule picks back up at the end of February. Forty-one games down. Forty-one to go. It’ll be an interesting journey.