"I think the biggest change for him will come as soon as he identifies, and he actually said the term, 'get to 5th gear.' A lot of times he's playing in third gear. He's got another speed. When I show him video or we talk about his game, [I say] let's make sure we're playing in fifth gear tonight."

Game by game after his return to the lineup, Patrick gradually started to get back to doing the things he did during his stretch of five goals and nine points in the team's 10 games between Oct.20 and Nov. 10. Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon -- and Patrick himself -- identified what he needed to do in order to finally put the drought in the rear-view mirror: getting to the dots-down, hashmarks-in areas where most NHL goals get scored. It had start with better moving his feet and using his quickness.

In a nutshell, that was the process by which second-year Flyers center Nolan Patrick racked up four goals and six points over the team's last three games. Before that, he went 24 games without a goal, producing just two assists in that span. He also dealt with an injury that kept him out of the lineup for four games.

Before a player breaks out of a prolonged offensive drought, there is usually a period of a few games where he gets an increased number of scoring chances but ends up with nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. It's cold comfort for the player until the elusive slump-buster finally comes but, once it does, the floodgates sometimes open as his confidence is restored.

Another facet of Patrick's game when he is truly going well: he can turn defense into offense. That has started to return with a couple of his recent tallies coming at the end of transition plays.

In the games leading up to Patrick's breakthrough night against the Minnesota Wild, there were hints that he was getting close to the end of the drought. For example, late in the first period of the Flyers' 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars, Patrick beat Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell one-on-one at the blueline and went in to snap off a quality shot on goal. Dallas netminder Anton Khudobin happened to make the save on that play. Later in the game, Patrick won a battle for the puck, drew a defender toward him and dished off for a scoring chance for Wayne Simmonds. The 20-year-old Patrick nevertheless finished the game without a point.

Two games later, Patrick received a saucer pass from Scott Laughton in the left circle and chipped the puck past Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. That opened the floodgates. Another goal -- a nifty between-the-legs put-in of a Travis Sanheim shot attempt that caromed off the end boards -- followed. So did a pair of assists. He had more points in a single night than he had combined in his previous 24 outings.

Patrick did not get on the scoresheet against the Boston Bruins two nights later. However, at one juncture, he got to the net for a point-blank scoring chance that he was unable to elevate and, instead, found the pads of Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak as he slid across in desperation.

One game later, though, Patrick scored two huge goals for the Flyers in the third period of Saturday's 5-2 win in Montreal. On the first, Patrick finished off a 2-on-1 opportunity, jumping into the seam and burying a feed patiently set up by Simmonds. On the latter goal, Patrick showed just how fully his confidence has been restored as he dangled around Montreal defenders at will and then snapped off a shot that beat Montreal goalie Antti Niemi.

After the night against Minnesota in which the slump finally ended, Patrick (who is usually a young man of few words) opened up about what a mentally arduous process it had been for him leading up to the breakout game.

"It weighs on you quite a bit. It's something you think about quite a bit when you go through a slump like that. I didn't know it would take that long," Patrick admitted.

Through the worst of times, however, Patrick knew where to turn first for support and counsel: his father, retired former NHL forward Steve Patrick.

"My dad is the biggest influence for me. I talk to him after every game. He's always helping me stay positive throughout slumps like that when the team's not playing well and you're not producing. I have to give a lot of credit to him," Patrick said.

Ultimately, though, no one but the young player himself could get him out of his production drought.

The process of doing it was painstaking -- for a while, the player's confidence was at low ebb and bonafide scoring chances were few and far between at one juncture -- but it ended up becoming a valuable learning experience.

Now the challenge for Patrick will be to pick up where he just left off when he and the Flyers team return to action from their bye week and the NHL All-Star Break.