I just don't think it was as bad as you. I think not only did we get better every period, I think we saw good stuff every period. And while I'm happy to explain why I think what I think, I don't see any hoops to jump about 2-2 with a good Flyers team after 60 where we edged the 5v5 chances. It's not like we got shelled by the Red Wings.
Defensive structure is one of the big starting points - well, we kept the Flyers to the lowest xGF out of any team playing last night at 5v5, and the Flyers were a long way from the worst team playing. Their 16 shots was 2nd lowest, their 4 high danger chances was 2nd lowest. Yes, we had some breakdowns, but every team's going to have some and by the numbers, we didn't have that many. Which honestly matched my eye-test. I thought we got back quick, I thought we were good about getting low and forcing them back up to the points, we were aggressive pressuring them... if the starting point of a cup run for us if team defence, Geno and Sid, I thought we ticked at least one. By the numbers, we saw December's team, not the vs Islanders team.
Did we struggle a bit with Philadelphia's defensive structure, both in terms of avoiding the forecheck and beating the trap? Sure, a bit, and we looked better when the team said "screw this, we'll just dump and chase" (this team is statistically a very good dump and chase team which I don't think should surprise anyone, it shouldn't be afraid of that). But that's the sort of execution thing that I think is always going to be hard on bad ice with rusty hands. Not like Philadelphia didn't struggle a bit at times either. I think this part will come. And if it takes a while, then the defensive game we saw last night, the effort we saw in the third, and our ability to create chances and chaos around the net just from good old dump and chase should give us a while.