It was a quote deemed worthy enough of emblazoning on the front of a bright orange T-shirt by those running Philadelphia Flyers’ marketing department.“Good things happen to good people,” said Dan Vladar, moments after the Flyers eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on April 29, and as reflected on the shirt gifted to fans in the second-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.“There are good people in here, so we deserve this,” Vladar continued.Along with being the Flyers’ rock in net, Vladar was also their most direct with his comments late in the regular season and in the playoffs. More than once, as the Flyers’ chances ebbed and flowed, he referred to everyone outside of the dressing room — and probably a few of the reporters who would occasionally walk into it — as not having enough faith that the team would ultimately overachieve.“Nobody believed in us right from the beginning of the season,” Vladar told NBC Sports’ Scott Hartnell in a bench interview minutes after the Flyers clinched a playoff berth on April 13. “We just proved everybody wrong.”In the Penguins series, despite allowing a couple of strange goals that ultimately cost the Flyers in their pair of first-round losses, Vladar’s defiant replies about the bad bounces — “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said about a Game 4 goal that came on a blatant giveaway by Vladar, for example — were probably as much for him and his teammates as for the reporters and fans. He was doing everything he could to try to prevent both himself, and those playing in front of him, from losing focus or tightening up.Vladar’s 42-save shutout in Game 6 — the single best showing from a Flyers goalie in more than a decade, considering the stakes — was the exclamation point.Vladar wasn’t just the Flyers’ most important player. He was also, in some ways, their conscience. Vladar’s teammates spoke often about how much he was adored in the room, and how he had the unique ability to say the right thing at the time to the bench, including in Game 2 of the Penguins series when Pittsburgh was starting to take control. Coach Rick Tocchet frequently referred to him as one of the team’s leaders.