Survival is but a bit of better luck away, Flyers say

The effort is there, Alain Vigneault said. Now if only his team could execute the plan.

The plan is essentially to work, and in every sense of the hockey vernacular, work hard. Yet the Flyers enter Game 5 of their conference semifinals series with the New York Islanders not only down three games to one in a best of seven series, but down to their last hope.

And that would be to hope to keep doing what they’ve been trying to do all along.

“I don’t think we can play a lot harder than we did yesterday,” Vigneault said Monday, referencing a 3-2 loss to the Islanders the night before. “I do believe that we have more finish around their net than what we’ve shown. I believe we’ve got the skill level as far as offensive capabilities to be able to finish on some of the looks that we’re getting.

“What we have to do is not focus on the big task, but focus on tomorrow.”

Specifically that would be the the start of Game 5 Tuesday night at 7, the first of what the Flyers can only hope would be three consecutive wins over a team that has looked better than the Flyers throughout the series. Just a mirage? “I feel like throughout all the games, both teams were kind of handing it to each other,” center Kevin Hayes said. “It’s mistakes that we need to fix that end up in the back our net. They’re a great team, don’t get me wrong. There’s a reason that they are here. They’ve got great players. But I feel like a lot of goals that have ended up in the back of our net have been the results of us shooting ourselves in the foot.

“Once we fix that,” Hayes concluded, “results should start to change.”

Results? Top point-getters Travis Konecny and Claude Giroux haven’t had any goals. Not in this series, not in the playoffs. And Sean Couturier finally scored his first goal of the playoffs in Game 4.

While the clubs have shared mistakes, the one major difference in this series is that the Islanders’ best forwards have come to play and the Flyers’ ... haven’t. Not that they haven’t tried, of course...

“It’s not like the effort isn’t there,” Konecny countered. “I think when things aren’t going in for you, you just simplify and start getting pucks to the net. Just find what’ll work for you. We’ve just got to keep going to the net. That’s usually where the goals are scored, is around the blue paint.

“I think the big thing, too, is getting in front of the goalie’s eyes. We’ve been preaching that a lot. (Couturier) did it yesterday and scored a big goal for us. The results, they’re right there for us. It’s just a matter of getting a couple more bounces.”

If there’s a change in the air Tuesday, it’ll then come down to a Game 6 Thursday. If people still believe in miracles, then it could reach a Game 7 Saturday.

Of course, that would be a little ahead of where the Flyers want to go right now.

Alain Vigneault has experience with this. Twice during his tenure as the head coach of the New York Rangers, his teams came back to win from deficits of three games to one, against the Penguins in 2014 and the Capitals in 2015.

“I think what we did back then and what we’re going to talk about with our group here is not looking at the big picture, but looking at that one game that’s ahead of you,” Vigneault said. “This is a great opportunity, I think, for our leadership group to change the narrative, change their legacy. Let’s focus on tomorrow night. Let’s go out there, let’s compete the way we did yesterday.”