Confidence is huge for a player throughout the course of a grueling 82 game season. It can play a big role in a players success, especially when things aren’t going as expected. If you stay confident, things are bound to turnaround eventually.
Over the course of the past few weeks, the confidence level of the Flyers has been through the roof. They’ve won eight straight games and now sit only seven points back of the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. Why wouldn’t they be confident?
One man, in particular, has been playing with a real swagger lately. Oskar Lindblom, who is in the middle of his second season with the Orange and Black, has finally begun to right the ship and get back to playing simple but effective hockey.
Over the past three weeks, the 22-year-old winger has gone on a tear. In seven games, Lindblom has racked up six points (3G,3A) including a multi-point game vs Boston back on January 16th.
Ice time has also been a big factor for the Sweden native. In the month of December, Lindblom averaged what was a measly 8:54 of total ice time per game. In the month of January, Lindblom saw an increase of over five minutes in total ice time averaging 14:14. Not to mention he’s now found a home on the second line playing with Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek. The biggest thing though is the level of confidence he’s played with of late.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Like you said, were playing better as a team and I feel better.” The young winger explained. “I feel like I have more confidence out there and I can do more, so as long as you have confidence it’s going to be so much easier to play”, said Lindblom when talking about his success of late.”
Aside from his play of late, Lindblom knows that as a team, the Flyers still have a lot of work to do to get where they want to be despite being only seven points out of a playoff spot.
Back on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s game versus the Oilers, Lindblom talked about how important every game was from here on out due to the deep hole they dug themselves into early on in the season.
“Yeah, it’s big. Every game now is big and we have to play like it’s a playoff game every game, so we need to keep going and try and win some games here”.
The Flyers have done just that having won their first three games of this five-game home stand, extending their winning streak to eight games.
Now with only 29 games remaining in the regular season, Lindblom knows now more than ever that his confidence level will need to stay elevated in order to help the Orange and Black make a push for the playoffs.
The Flyers are back in action tomorrow night as they host the LA Kings in search of their ninth consecutive win. Puck Drop is at 7PM.
As always, Lets Go Flyers!
Photo credit: Alex Mclntyre
