Power Rankings: Flyers putting heat on division leaders

Updated Dec. 15

The great Satchel Paige used to warn people not to look back because something might be gaining on them.

It is advice a couple of division leaders in the Eastern Conference might do well to heed these days because the Philadelphia Flyers have caught fire in the past month after a miserable start.

That really shouldn't surprise anyone since the Flyers did engineer one of the greatest turnaround seasons in NHL history in 2007-08. Philadelphia went to the conference finals after finishing 30th overall the year before, but failed to build on that momentum early this season when it lost its first six games. Since mid-November though, the Flyers have turned things around and they begin the week on 12-1-3 run.

"We put ourselves in a hole right out of the gate early in the season, and we've more than made up for it," said forward Mike Knuble. "It's fun to come in and pick up the paper and see where we are."

No doubt. The streak has seen Philadelphia outscore opponents 55-42 while overwhelming them with their special teams. The power play has been clicking at better than 26 percent during this stretch, and the penalty killers have been effective nearly 87 percent of the time.

The upshot is that the Flyers have all but negated the early-season lead the Rangers built up in the Atlantic Division, climbing to within four points of New York while holding four games in hand. And now Philadelphia trails the third-seeded Washington Capitals of the Southeast Division by just one point, while having played two fewer games.

"We had meetings and said we have to keep working and things will turn around, but we never stopped believing," said defenseman Kimmo Timonen. "The biggest thing to me, the last 15 or 16 games, we're playing as a team."

A pretty good one in fact. Here are this week's rankings: