60 minutes. Decent play for the first two periods, until a collapse in the 3rd.

Thursday's game was a bit of an exception to the rule, as the Flyers got off to (yet came close to recovering from) a sluggish start, one that saw them yield two goals in an 11-second span. Cam Atkinson also helped sink them with a hat trick, giving the Blue Jackets a tight 5-3 win.

With the regular season winding down, the Metropolitan Division is in an absolute dogfight to the finish. In the third playoff spot, the Flyers sit four points behind Pittsburgh and Washington with 81 points, while New Jersey (80 points) and Columbus (79) sit right on their heels in both wild card spots.

For the Flyers, they have a chance to gainsome ground, hosting that same Blue Jackets team that can tie them with two points. Though the Flyers snapped a five-game skid last weekend, they took a step back with a home loss to Vegas, so they'll take all they can get here.

After a month of February where the Flyers picked up 10 wins and 22 points in the standings with a 10-1-2 record, the Flyers are just 1-5-1 in their first seven games in March, gaining just three points in the process.

That has the rest of the playoff teams in the Eastern Conference hot on the Flyers heels as the regular season winds down.

The Flyers find themselves caught in the middle of the pack again. They are just four points off the Metropolitan Division lead with games