The Philadelphia Flyers are fairly comfortably in a playoff spot as they head into a weekend back-to-back set against two rivals. First, they host the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon before traveling across the state to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins less than 24 hours later.
It’s not exactly the easiest setup for the Flyers, as they have to play a Penguins team with three days of rest after taking on another rival the day before.
The Flyers currently have 67 points in 57 games for a .588 point percentage. They have a seven-point lead over the Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, and New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division, with a nine-point lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins as well. However, all of those teams have at least one game in hand on the Flyers: Captials (two), Devils (one), Islanders (one), Penguins (three).
While the Capitals and Islanders aren’t really threats due to their -30 and -26 goal differentials, respectively, they’re finding ways to win and earn points to put the pressure on. The Devils and Penguins are the two teams that had higher hopes entering the season — especially New Jersey — and find themselves well on the outside looking in.
Some may view this weekend’s two games as make-or-break for the Flyers. The Rangers are well ahead of them in the standings with the Penguins chasing them. These games are certainly important, but it’s more of a litmus test than anything. Moreover, even if the Flyers do lose both games, it won’t necessarily be a stain on their success thus far — and most importantly, it won’t change their playoff position.
The rest of the teams around the Flyers in the Metropolitan Division are also in action this weekend, including two games for the Rangers, Hurricanes, and Devils. The Capitals, Islanders, and Penguins all play just once.
The good thing is that none of those games — besides the Flyers’, of course, — are in-division contests, so there won’t be any instances of both teams picking up at least one point as they chase down the Flyers.
Here is how the standings currently look heading into Saturday’s games and what the worst-case scenario would be after Sunday’s action.
| Current Standings | Worst-case Weekend | |||||||
| Team | Points | P% | GR | Team | Points | P% | GR | |
| Rangers | 79 | 0.681 | 25 | Rangers | 83 | 0.728 | 25 | |
| Hurricanes | 73 | 0.640 | 26 | Hurricanes | 77 | 0.664 | 24 | |
| Flyers | 67 | 0.578 | 25 | Flyers | 67 | 0.568 | 23 | |
| Capitals | 60 | 0.536 | 27 | Capitals | 62 | 0.564 | 27 | |
| Devils | 60 | 0.526 | 26 | Devils | 64 | 0.552 | 24 | |
| Islanders | 60 | 0.526 | 26 | Islanders | 62 | 0.544 | 25 | |
| Penguins | 58 | 0.527 | 28 | Penguins | 60 | 0.545 | 27 | |
Even if the Flyers lose both of their games with the rest of the division winning theirs, the Orange and Black will have a three-point lead over the Devils (one game in hand), and a five-point lead on the Capitals (four games in hand) and Islanders (two games in hand).
Of course, the Wild Card spots are still in play, but those are currently held by the Detroit Red Wings (66 points in 56 games) and Tampa Bay Lightning (65 points in 58 games). The Red Wings have two winnable games (vs. STL, @ CHI) with the Lightning on the road against the Islanders and Devils.
All in all, this weekend should be a good test for the Flyers against the current Presidents’ Trophy favorite New York Rangers and hated rival Pittsburgh Penguins. And if they somehow end up sweeping the weekend set, they’ll be looking ahead of them in the standings to earn home-ice advantage in the first round rather than worrying about the logjam of teams behind them.
