For Flyers, it's about the No. 1 seed

FOR MOST of the NHL, the playoffs started a month ago - just before the trade deadline, when teams needed to decide if they were buyers or sellers.

It has been a race - for most - to either hold ground or just do enough to remain in the conversation. Some teams, like Florida, Atlanta, or Minnesota, have unofficially fallen by the wayside.

For the Flyers, who became the first team in the Eastern Conference to clinch a playoff berth on Saturday, the playoffs begin tonight against Washington.

With a win tonight against the Capitals - who limp into the game without Alex Ovechkin or Mike Green - the Flyers can all but assure themselves the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

And they know it.

"For the first time in a while, we have a game that's meaningful for us," Danny Briere said. "It's been a little tough finding the motivation at times when you're playing teams like Ottawa and Florida. I think we've been playing better lately.

"We're not all the way up to where we want to be, but look at this next week: Pittsburgh twice, Washington, Boston once. We'll play some good teams and hopefully it's going to make us rack up the intensity."

It's hard to overstate the importance of the Flyers retaining the No. 1 seed for the playoffs. With a win tonight, they would be four points up with two games in hand.

Even during the Flyers' recent downturn, in which inconsistencies have been aplenty, they still have managed to collect points at a pace similar to their seasonlong average. The Flyers are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games and 4-0-2 in their last six.

In those last six games, the Flyers have earned 10 out of a possible 12 points. That points percentage (.833) is above their season average of .676 of every point available.

With a win, and the assumption they would maintain that season average over the final 10 games, the Flyers would finish with 112 points.

Washington collects 64.4 percent of each point that is up for grabs. The Capitals will have just eight games to play, with a possible 16 points for the taking. With 94 points, even if the Capitals won all eight, the Flyers still would finish two points ahead if they just meet their season average.

Yes, Washington has won at an extraordinary clip - 12 of its last 14 games, to be exact - but would need to not only maintain that pace but exceed it to catch the Flyers.

The Flyers are in the driver's seat. And they vowed to not change their game plan against the Caps, even without Ovechkin.

"He's not going to change our game plan," Claude Giroux said. "We've just got to go out there and play our game. He's not going to change what we do out there on the ice. It doesn't matter who is on the ice on their side."

A loss tonight and, well, it would be a slippery slope. The Capitals, all of a sudden, would pull into a first-place tie. And the Flyers' chase for their first division title since 2004 would come into question, with two matchups looming against the Penguins in a span of 5 days.

After winning last night's game at Detroit in a shootout, the Penguins trail the Flyers by four points in the division.

"Washington is the hottest team in the league right now," coach Peter Laviolette said. "Pittsburgh has proved that they can take a couple of big guys out of their lineup and continue to win."

For the Flyers, the first seed means everything. Here's what the first-round matchups would look like if they began today:

1. Flyers vs. 8. Buffalo

2. Washington vs. 7. NY Rangers

3. Boston vs. 6. Montreal

4. Pittsburgh vs. 5. Tampa Bay

It doesn't guarantee a first-round win over Buffalo, but watching Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay get bounced before May rolls around would be a welcome sight for the Flyers. None of those other three series is a short one - not even for the Capitals. Boston and Montreal are old-time rivals with a lot of bad blood this season. They would pound each other.

But it requires a win tonight to start. No pressure.

Chris Pronger returned to practice yesterday for the first time since last Tuesday's hand surgery, in which a screw was inserted into a fractured bone to promote healing. Pronger wore a yellow "non-contact'' jersey and did not handle the puck. He said he will begin ramping up his shooting and passing "shortly'' . . . The Flyers are 2-0-1 against Washington this season. All three games have gone to overtime . . . did not name his starting goaltender.

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

www.philly.com/FrequentFlyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.