Friday Four: Flyers keep finding ways to win

Each Friday throughout the season Kevin Weekes will be bringing you his Friday Four. He will be blogging about four players, teams, plays, or trends that have caught his eye.

Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers are hot right now, on a seven-game winning streak. All of their top forwards have been really good. Wayne Simmonds leads them in goals (15). Claude Giroux, with 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists) and Jakub Voracek, also with 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) have done what's been expected of them. Voracek is coming back from a tough season (he had 55 points in 2015-16, one season after having a career-high 81).
For me, Simmonds has become a star in this League, and a dependable one. As one Western Conference coach told me, "Wayne Simmonds is a dream player because every day, he is going to do everything you want him to do to be successful and you don't have to coax it out of him," which says a lot.
The key with Giroux and Voracek is they are playing more of a 200-foot game, but also the defense for the Flyers, with Brandon Manning, Ivan Provorov and Shayne Gostisbehere, are getting passes in the offensive zone. There's pretty much a defenseman on every pair who can make a play, which goes a long way.
Also, center Brayden Schenn is a really good piece for them. He's skilled, plays with an edge and it was good that general manager Ron Hextall and Schenn's agent were able to agree to a contract before the season.
Last season, all of their players believed they could make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and to their credit, they did. Right now in this stretch, there's a lot of that vibe on this team.
Goalie Steve Mason has won a career-high six straight starts and his numbers are starting to round into form. There's no reason he shouldn't be a top 15 goalie every year. He has stepped up with the injury to Michal Neuvirth. There aren't a lot of nights in the NHL where if each of those guys are healthy, they should be out-goaltended.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning have made the Eastern Conference Final in each of the past two seasons, but haven't looked like that team this season. They've lost two straight and right now are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
Goaltender Ben Bishop has been a Vezina Trophy finalist in two of the past three seasons, but is off his game to a certain point. He did win two straight, allowing one goal in each, prior to allowing four goals in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, but I'm a huge fan of him and his game. This year, it has been up and down for him; I'm not sure if it's the pending free agency that's weighing on his mind, but he is going through a rough patch right now. Andrei Vasilevskiy has played very well (before his past few starts), and gotten a lot of starts, and maybe that's also been concerning for Bishop.
The Lightning haven't put together a solid 60 minutes of hockey in consistent stretches of hockey. One thing we haven't talked about is playing through the injuries, since they've done a great job up to this point, but it's starting to catch up to them now, especially with center Steven Stamkos out.
Maybe they're going to have to lock it down a little bit more as a team, and coach Jon Cooper and their staff know how to do that. I'm expecting a turnaround from them - there's tons of character in that room - so let's see how things go in the next little while.

Calgary Flames

It's all about goaltender Chad Johnson. He was brought in to back up Brian Elliott but has actually made more starts to this point and has been the better goalie. Johnson has won five straight starts and is 12-4-1 with a 1.98 goals-against average, .932 save percentage and three shutouts. He had really good numbers with the Buffalo Sabres last season and has proven that wasn't a fluke. Elliott is 3-9-1 with an .885 save percentage and 3.31 goals-against average and has really struggled.
I think if there were a do-over, the Flames would have found a way to get forward Johnny Gaudreau signed on time. There's no question that became a distraction for their group. He came off a good performance for Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey 2016. He embraces playing in Canada and is obviously a huge part of their team. Gaudreau has 17 (seven goals, 10 assists) in 20 games.
The Flames are tied with the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division. True, they've played more games than any other team, but you can only control what you can control, and they've won five straight.

New York Islanders

The Islanders are 5-0-1 in their past six games and have beaten some good teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. Center John Tavares looks more like himself, center Anders Lee is starting to come alive and goaltenders Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss are each getting back to the level we saw them play at last season.
The biggest thing for me is they haven't been giving up too many plays in the middle of the ice, like they had earlier this season. It seemed like it was breakaway after breakaway or 2-on-0 after 2-on-0 against them on many occasions, but they've cleaned that up.

HONORABLE MENTION

Center Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres came back from an ankle injury and has five points (three goals, two assists) in five games. Similarly, forward Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils returned early from his knee injury and has lit it up, with seven points (three goals, four assists) in the past three games.
Forwards Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler are just a few of the players who make the Winnipeg Jets worth watching. Laine is going head-to-head with Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby for the goal-scoring lead and that has been very impressive to watch.
Keep your eye on the Ottawa Senators. Dion Phaneuf has settled into being the No. 2 defenseman behind Erik Karlsson, and goaltender Mike Condon seems to have finally fit in after he had trouble getting a job this offseason. He has proven he can play when Craig Anderson has taken a personal leave.
Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak has 18 goals and is emerging into a true star. He can score in a lot of different ways and goes to the net and creates. Bruins defenseman Torey Krug told me a few years ago this kid would be a star, and he was right.