‘Cinderella’ Flyers looking to lead at homecoming dance

The Flyers have good reason to feel good about themselves coming off a victory in Pittsburgh Friday night that represented a stunning reversal of their lack of form in Game 1 two nights earlier.

With a 5-1 win in Game 2 bolstering their confidence, the Flyers are home for Game 3 Sunday (3 p.m., NBC10) seeking a major step forward. They’ll also try to keep a lower mental profile despite what should be a party atmosphere for the first Philadelphia-based hockey playoff game in two years.

It’s not a Saturday night at the Sixers, but hey, it’s no April Phillies game, either.

“It’s pretty hardcore,” Claude Giroux remembered about previous playoff atmospheres in Wells Fargo Center. “It’s pretty wild. You have to take it all in, but at the same time you have to remember there’s a hockey game here.”

The fear for the Flyers is their younger players experiencing playoffs for the first time. Nine total, including current healthyscratch practice participants still looking to crack into the lineup, might get caught up in the home hype the same way they did for the playoff opener Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

Of course, a little youthful intimidation is no reason to implode for a 7-0 loss.

Of course, there isn’t one simple answer to a 5-1 rebound victory in Game 2, either.

“There can be a lot of distractions, being at home for your first home playoff game,” Shayne Gostisbehere said. “But I think we’re going to manage that well and come out firing.”

Actually, a few Flyers noted Saturday, they might want to come out a little more understated than totally fired up for Game 3.

“When teams get too aggressive, I think that’s when you see turnovers happen and things that aren’t supposed to happen, happen,” Gostisbehere said. “So for us, keeping it simple is the best thing. Let them make the mistakes.”

“I think at home sometimes we try to do a little too much,” Giroux added. “We try to do the extra play and you have to keep it simple; don’t do the extra pass. Just put it on net.”

The Flyers did a pretty good job Wednesday night confirming what a lot of people — OK, pretty much everyone — thought going into the series. That the Flyers would be a pretty heavy underdog to a two-time defending Stanley Cup championship team that generally steps up its play at this time of year and, oh yeah, won all four regular season meetings.

In the messy aftermath of Game 1, a few Philly players even hinted that their underdog label seemed a fair one but that they could perhaps rally around it.

Even with the win Friday, it was an intriguing notion.

“You can label us anything you want,” Gostisbehere said. “I think the city has taken the underdog role a little bit, too. It is what it is. We know we’re a good hockey team. We can compete with anyone and I think it showed last night that we can do that.”

Gostisbehere then referenced one of those Philly teams, specifically the football team.

“We have a couple of dog masks running around in here,” he cracked. “It’s a cool role to have. Not a lot of pressure. As a team I don’t think we think of ourselves as a Cinderella or anything like that. We’re a good team, we almost had a 100 points in a season.”

If that weren’t enough to dispel the notion of underdog status in the Flyers’ locker room, coach Dave Hakstol’s view in the wake of Game 2 further clarified it.

“We didn’t say that,” Hakstol said. “That’s what everybody else has said . ... That’s what we’re labeled as. Reality inside our dressing room is that we know that. There’s a belief inside our dressing room that we’re here for a purpose.

“I honestly don’t think it’s a big rallying cry for our guys. I’m not trying to downplay it, I’m not trying to overplay it. The reality is nobody expects us to win this series. Do the math on what all the predictions are. And that’s fine. How that affects our team, I don’t think it’s a big rallying cry. I think our guys have a real sound belief in themselves inside our dressing room.”

Hakstol felt that was one major part of the Flyers’ game that stayed very much intact going into Game 2, after the most humiliating Flyers playoff defeats ... ever.

“Obviously our focus wasn’t what it needed to be in Game 1,” Hakstol said. “We didn’t play a very good hockey game and they blew us out of the water. We came back and we played a little bit better last night and got an important road win. Now the focus for our staff and our team is how can we be a little bit better here at home, because we’re going to have to be a little bit better in a lot of areas.”