Dan Vladar will remember that feeling all summer.<\/p>\n
The feeling of the puck clipping his glove and shoulder, ricocheting into the air and then dropping into the net. Just like that, the Flyers’ turnaround season<\/a> was done, with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Hurricanes<\/a> in the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n On a shot from Jackson Blake that Vladar can probably replay perfectly in his head.<\/p>\n “That goal, I watched it a lot of times, to be honest with you,” the Flyers’ netminder said a week ago at his end-of-the-season press conference. “I probably watched it 150 times and I was getting more and more mad. And it’s still in me, so it’s going to be another fire driving me forward.”<\/p>\n It was an unfortunate and sour end to a standout season for Vladar, the Flyers’ most valuable player by far. He wasn’t to blame for the Flyers’ season-ending loss or the series sweep to the Eastern Conference’s top seed.<\/p>\n But Vladar was still wearing it. Despite shining in the regular season<\/a> and the first-round series win<\/a> over the Penguins, Vladar felt responsible for the quick second-round exit.<\/p>\n “I think, me personally, I could have stolen a game or two,” Vladar said. “Because in every playoff series, you need a goalie to step up and steal that extra game, and I wasn’t able to do that. So that’s something that’s going to be pushing me and it’s going to be in the back of my head over the summer and heading into the season.<\/p>\n “But at the same time, we know how hard it is to make the playoffs. Obviously there’s going to be probably more pressure heading toward next season, but we all know it’s going to start with Game 1 and winning Game 1 of the regular season.”<\/p>\n