With just a few games left before the halfway point of the season Boston Bruins Hoodies Authentic , the Philadelphia Flyers and the Florida Panthers get set to meet on Saturday night ¨C and neither team is in playoff position.The Panthers, who will host the Flyers, are 15-15-6 with 36 points following a 5-3 home loss on Friday night to a team they are chasing in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Canadiens.¡°We didn¡¯t make it that tough on (Montreal),¡± said Panthers forward Mike Hoffman, who had two assists. ¡°We gave them too many easy goals. Hopefully we can clean it up.¡±Article continues below ...Panthers coach Bob Boughner was furious at his team after the loss, especially because Florida fell behind 2-0 with less than three minutes played.¡°Some guys weren¡¯t ready to play when the puck dropped,¡± Boughner said, not naming names. ¡°It¡¯s great that we came back, 2-2, but we didn¡¯t play a good game. Everybody knows that.¡°Our fourth goal was a backbreaker. We had two (defensemen) caught behind the net ¨C just unaware, dumb hockey.¡±Boughner then returned to the theme of those first three, brutal minutes.¡°I¡¯d like to say it was a bad team start, but it was a couple of individuals (who started poorly),¡± he said. ¡°That screwed the rest of us.¡°We didn¡¯t even get a chance to get our third and fourth lines on the ice before it was 2-0. I¡¯d love to say our team wasn¡¯t ready. But a couple of guys weren¡¯t ready, and it cost us.¡±Meanwhile Boston Bruins Hats Authentic , the Flyers are 15-16-5, with 35 points, following a 6-5 overtime loss to the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.Philadelphia erased a four-goal deficit against the team with the best record in the NHL, earning a hard-fought point.¡°This proves that our team doesn¡¯t quit,¡± Philadelphia¡¯s Ivan Provorov said. ¡°We play to the end.¡±Added Philadelphia¡¯s Robert Hagg: ¡°As soon as we got the first goal, we said, ¡®OK, we can actually do this again.'¡±The only negative for the Flyers was the fact that 20-year-old center Nolan Patrick left the game with an upper-body injury.Patrick, who has five goals and six assists in this his second NHL season, is questionable for the Panthers game.Florida¡¯s biggest injury issue revolves around second-line center Vincent Trocheck, who was an All-Star in 2017 and combined to score 54 goals the past two years.Trocheck hasn¡¯t played since Nov. 19 due to a fractured right ankle, but he could return to game action in early February, Boughner said. Trocheck could start skating in a week.The Panthers on Saturday are expected to star backup goalie James Reimer, resting Roberto Luongo, who took the loss on Friday.One bright spot for the Panthers on Friday ¡ª and perhaps carrying on into Saturday ¨C was the play of a pair of 21-year-olds, Henrik Borgstrom and Denis Malgin Custom Boston Bruins Jerseys , who both scored first-period goals.That secondary scoring is important because the Panthers normally rely on four forwards:Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov, who share the team lead with 17 goals each; JonathanHuberdeau, who tops Florida in assists (33) and points (42); and captain Aleksander Barkov,who is second with 37 points.Claude Giroux has 13 goals and leads the Flyers in points (44) and assists (31). Sean Couturier leads the team with 14 goals and is third with 28 points. Jakob Voracek has nine goals and is second on the team with 29 points. NEW YORK ¡ª A slow start didn¡¯t doom the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night. But they¡¯ll probably need to jump out quicker on Tuesday if they want to make their brief trip to New York a truly successful one.The Canadiens will look to earn a sweep of a back-to-back set Tuesday night, when they visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in a battle of ?Original Six? franchises.Both teams are coming off wins in their most recent games. The Canadiens overcame a two-goal first period deficit Monday night to edge the host New York Islanders, 4-3, in the shootout. The Rangers earned their third straight victory Sunday, when they beat the visiting Buffalo Sabres, 3-1.Article continues below ...The Canadiens (8-4-2) fell behind 3-1 in the first period Monday and didn¡¯t take the lead until Joel Armia scored the lone goal in the shootout.¡°The alarm clock went off in the dressing room,¡± Montreal coach Claude Julien said afterward. ¡°I just thought we had a slow start that first period. We weren¡¯t ourselves. We weren¡¯t good and we couldn¡¯t continue that way. But we talked about what we needed to do in the dressing room and what we needed to get better and the guys just responded well.¡±The Rangers (6-7-1) also responded well to an internal challenge Sunday, when they held on to a third period lead against the Sabres. New York gave up the tying or go-ahead goal in the final minute of regulation in each of its previous three games, though it won two of those contests by beating San Jose and Anaheim in the shootout.On Sunday, though, the Rangers withstood a flurry by the Sabres after the latter pulled goalie Carter Hutton before Jimmy Vesey¡¯s empty netter put the game away with 1:51 remaining.¡°I think we¡¯ve definitely learned things,¡± Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk told reporters following the game. ¡°The way you have to learn, unfortunately www.officialsabres.com , is to get bit in the (rear end) a little bit. So, I think we did a good job of, when pucks did turn over, we held our ground, we didn¡¯t rush out of position.¡±A pair of star goalies who have won the Vezina Trophy as the best net-minder in the NHL are likely to start Tuesday night.Carey Price, the Canadiens? number one goalie, should start after backup Antti Niemi played and earned the win Monday night. Price, who won the Vezina Trophy as well as the Hart Trophy as the NHL?s Most Valuable Player during the 2014-15 season, made his most recent start Saturday, when he took the loss after recording 32 saves as Montreal fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1.Lundqvist, who won the Vezina Trophy in 2011-12, earned the win Sunday, when he made 39 saves against the Sabres. He has started five of the Rangers¡¯ last six games.Price is 16-6-1 in 24 career appearances against the Rangers. Lundqvist is 15-17-3 in 36 games against the Canadiens.