John Smallwood: Flyers showing a winning attitude

I DON'T KNOW enough about the intricacies of the NHL justice system to say whether the three-game suspension handed down to Danny Briere was too harsh.

In my eyes, it looked as if the hit Briere delivered to the face of the New York Islanders' Frans Nielsen on Saturday was tough to defend.

Still, in the big picture, there is something to like about Briere's reaction, one of aggression against an opponent he thought was trying to intimidate him.

Briere said that before the faceoff, Nielsen had punched him in the back of the head and then, as they lined up, Nielsen cursed him.

"I told him, 'What are you doing? I know you are frustrated, but what are you trying to prove?' " Briere said.

"That's when he crossed the circle and gets in my face to tell me stuff . . . I've had what, two or three fights in my life, in my career?

"It was some sort of challenge. I had to protect myself."

This is what it will be like this season for the Flyers. Things have changed now they have raised that 2009-10 Eastern Conference championship banner.

They are a Stanley Cup finalist. They are the alpha dog of the Eastern Conference now, and every game, some lesser wolf will issue a challenge.

That's why there is something good to be found in Briere's suspension. Obviously, you don't want to react in a way that gets you a suspension. Still, you don't back down.

Champions don't get pushed around, they do the pushing.

And that's why you have to like the way the Flyers have played during their current winning streak.

It was only about a week ago that Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called his team out after a 2-1 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets. Laviolette basically said, if you don't show up to compete, you lose.

It was a comment the Flyers apparently took to heart, because they've been ripping through the opposition since.

With last night's 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, the Flyers have won four straight by a combined score of 18-8. They are dictating the flow of games. A cheap goal in the final 30 seconds made the result appear closer than it was.

Things have changed for the Flyers. They are no longer the team fighting its way up the mountain. This team has paid its dues and earned its status.

But sports are an ever-changing world of adjustments. Each step up the ladder requires an appropriate attitude shift. There is a difference going from the hunter to the hunted. The Flyers must understand the change in expectations that comes with reaching a Stanley Cup final.

It's a dangerous dance between confidence and complacency, but nothing is wrong with the Flyers showing a little bravado. They should have some swagger. They should go into each game knowing that the outcome is all about how they perform. They should know that if they execute their game plan and play to the level of their capabilities, it will take an extraordinary effort to beat them.

That's what they've done the last four games and you see the results.

"Yeah, I think we're just winning a lot of the details,'' Flyers winger Claude Giroux said. "Like the battles, the faceoffs and just the little details like that; and when you do that, you're always on the puck and you can hit better, too.

"I think we're playing better than the start of the season. Since the Columbus game, we've been playing the way we should be playing and following a system."

That is the transition the Phillies made over the last four seasons. They went from making the playoffs to winning a World Series to nearly defending a World Series.

Some people thought the Phillies had gotten too confident, but I think it was just a team that learned how to manage expectations and understood what it could accomplish.

That's where you want to see the Flyers' attitude go. There has to be a carryover from the display of grit and determination they showed in reaching the finals. These players have to know they are no longer the team that needed to reach the playoffs on the last shootout of the regular season. They have to know they are no longer the ones who needed to rally from an 0-3 series deficit to Boston in the conference semifinals.

The road to the Stanley Cup will be enough of a grind without the Flyers making things tougher.

No, Danny Briere should not have hit Frans Nielsen in the face with his stick, but ultimately it was about him not backing down from a challenge.

That's the attitude the Flyers have to have, because this season will be all about them being challenged.

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