Flyers Final Four Features Tied Teams, Rangers and Panthers

The Philadelphia Flyers' final four games include three games with the two teams tied for the last playoff spot in their conference. The Flyers play the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and the New York Rangers on Thursday and Sunday.

The Flyers also play the New York Islanders in their second-to-last regular season game.

The Rangers have a slight lead on the Panthers as they have two more wins, but both teams have 89 points. The Flyers are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for fourth place with 95 points.

The Flyers (42-25-11) lost their last game by a score of 4-3 to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night. The Rangers lost by 1-0 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

The Flordia Panthers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, to move into a tie with the Rangers for eighth place in the N.H.L.’s Eastern Conference.

The Rangers (40-30-9) play the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday and then finish the season with back-to-back games against Philadelphia. They won their last game against the Canadiens in Montreal and split their last home series with the Flyers.

The Panthers (39-29-11) finish the season with games against the Flyers, the Atlanta Thrashers, and the Washington Capitals.

If history repeats itself and the Rangers beat Montreal again and then split their series with the Flyers, they will pick up four points. However, Montreal has gone from ice-cold to hot since their last meeting.

The Panthers lost to the Capitals and the Atlanta Thrashers but beat the Flyers. If history repeats, and they pick up two points, they will finish out of the playoffs.

If the Rangers and Panthers win and lose the same number of games and wind up tied, the tie-breaker will be determined by which team won more games during the season, which would put New York ahead by two games.

The Panthers and Rangers are fighting for the right to face the conference-leading Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Rangers split their last two games with the Bruins. Each team won at home.

Sean Avery is doing his best to add some spice to this potential continuation of the rivalry between the Rangers and the Bruins in the playoffs, Douglas Flynn wrote recently in the New England Hockey Journal, referring to a recent run-in between Avery and the Bruins goalie, Tim Thomas.

Flynn predicted a first-round series between Boston and New York might prove short on scoring, but would be plentiful when it comes to storylines.