NEW YORK -- This time, the New York Rangers promise it will be different.

This time, the Rangers insist, they not only understand what was wrong, but also get that they can't afford to let up again. The Rangers have had other games in which they've played as well as they did in Wednesday night's 2-0 win over the lifeless Philadelphia Flyers (see, other teams can look like that, too), but through the first 18 games of the season, they could never make the good times last.

This time, the Rangers believe, it will last.

"It has to," Rick Nash said. "We've got to follow it up with a huge game Friday [in Buffalo]."

"It has to last," Dan Girardi agreed. "It needs to last every game."

That doesn't mean the Rangers believe they'll never lose again. It does mean -- has to mean -- that they can't fall as far into the abyss as they have multiple times in these first two months of the season, most notably in Monday's 5-1 debacle against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Perhaps that really was the game that forced this team to fix things. Perhaps the two days of soul-searching that followed really did have an effect.

There's no way to know that for sure right now. You don't fix a consistency problem in one night, even if this was a pretty good night.

"That was a little better, eh," coach Alain Vigneault said with a grin as he began his postgame news conference.

Down the hall, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was screaming about how "embarrassing" this game was, according to Philadelphia writers. But even given how bad the Flyers looked, the Rangers earned the win rather than having it handed to them.

Vigneault figured that over the first two periods, the Rangers had almost 20 true scoring chances, while holding the Flyers to five or six. With a little luck or a little better shooting touch or a little worse goaltending (Steve Mason was the one Flyer who did play well), the Rangers could have scored a lot more than two goals.

They won't complain. If anything, the closer margin forced them to keep up their strong effort for all 60 minutes.

"The only thing I can say is we know the right way to play," Vigneault said. "We've proven it. We need to do it with some consistency."

Martin St. Louis, who had some of the most biting comments after Monday's loss, said that comparing the two games could do the Rangers some good.

"To get better, you need to have the right diagnosis," St. Louis said. "We knew what we didn't do. We didn't help each other out. We gave our trouble to somebody else, and then it snowballs and you just chase the puck all night."

The difference Wednesday?

"Everybody wanted to make a play," St. Louis said.

It was good enough for an early Kevin Klein goal after good work by Carl Hagelin. It was good enough for the Rangers to convert on the power play for the sixth time in the past nine games, this time on a beautiful play from Derek Stepan to St. Louis to Nash.

"I had the easy part," said Nash, who was left with an open net to shoot at. "I almost missed it, too."

It was also good enough for the first win of the season for backup goalie Cam Talbot (in just his fourth start), and for Talbot's fourth career shutout. The Flyers ended up with a misleading 31 shots, 13 of them in the third period and several after they pulled Mason with 3:32 to play.

"Overall, we just played as a team," Girardi said.

It sounds so simple, and in some ways it really is. The Rangers simply have been lifeless or flat or whatever you want to call it, far too often.

They were the opposite of that Wednesday.

"We can't afford any more of those games," Girardi said.

"Right from the start, we played the right way," Vigneault said. "It has to continue."

This time, the Rangers promise, it will.

Talbot's task: The Rangers goalie didn't win this game on his own. Not even close. But Talbot was good when he needed to be -- and made the Rangers believe he can be as good as he needs to be.

"It's a little difficult knowing that I haven't really contributed to the team this year," Talbot said. "So to be able to come out and provide a big win after what's been kind of a low stretch for us, it's pretty big."

Vigneault has said that he wants to limit Lundqvist to right about the 63 games he played last season. Talbot will need to contribute.

"It's very important," Vigneault said. "Our expectations are to get into the playoffs and challenge for the Cup. You need a backup who can do what Cam did last year, and play above .500."

Snow days: As of late Wednesday, the Rangers were still planning to fly to snow-bound Buffalo on Thursday afternoon, and Friday night's game against the Sabres was still on.