The B's haven't looked too happy of late. (Getty Images)

The Pregame Skate is back. Every morning for the rest of the season we're going to take a look at the games that have the greatest significance in the push for the postseason for you to digest while you drink your java. We'll throw in some miscellany for the fun of it.

Saturday's scoreboard

1 ET, Philadelphia at Boston

Seeing that it's St. Patrick's Day, it's only fitting that we start in Boston, where there all of a sudden is a lot of playoff interest. The Bruins wake up not feeling much luck of the Irish, sitting in seventh place in the conference.

That's because they have taken a tumble down the hill that Jack & Jill would be proud of. They once looked invincible, now they look so mortal you hardly recognize them.

The really interesting juxtaposition in the Saturday matinee is of the goaltenders. Ilya Bryzgalov has been the best in the NHL for the Flyers since the calendar flipped to March while Tim Thomas has been arguably the worst. Now in Thomas' defense, he has not been getting much help at all from the skaters in front of him. I'm not sure when Zdeno Chara began thinking it is OK to clear the defensive zone by passing up through the slot from the end line.

Now they're still not in any real danger of missing the playoffs completely in Boston and not defending their Stanley Cup -- they're seven points up on ninth-place Winnipeg -- but there is certainly some danger at play. They have lost their division lead to Ottawa but have fewer games played so that high seed can come back to them. More importantly, though, is that no team wants to enter the postseason in the doldrums. They can perhaps restart the engines with a big home win against a Philadelphia team that has been lights out lately.

7 ET, Colorado at Rangers

This game now has an intriguing playoff angle from both sides.

We know about the Avalanche's angle, we've highlighted them often here recently. They continue to try and wade through the sea of teams that are fighting for the last two (or three if you consider the Pacific Division) playoff spots up for grabs.

The pressure for them though has been and remains the fact that they are playing more often than any other team and they need to continue stockpiling points. Obviously everybody will catch up in point chances. After Saturday, the Avs will only have eight games left.

For the Rangers , amazingly, they enter the game only four points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Atlantic and Eastern Conference with Pittsburgh having a game in hand. The Pens will be in action against the Devils in the afternoon. The last thing the Rangers want to do is cede home-ice advantage to Pittsburgh.

10:30 ET, Detroit at San Jose

Just like the game above, we have to competing angles here, one about just getting in and the other regarding seeding.

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The Sharks come into Saturday in ninth place in the West, but I can't shake the feeling that when the season is all said and done in a couple of weeks, San Jose will be the three seed in the conference. They're only three points back of Dallas with two games in hand. That's going to be a great race with a lot of head-to-head matchups down the stretch as four teams are tightly jumbled atop the division.

Either way, though, they have to keep winning because with so many teams on the playoff bubble, there is a lot less room for error. Some team or teams in the mix are bound to get hot and reel off win after win.

For the Red Wings , they haven't found life to be as good without Nicklas Lidstrom or Pavel Datsyuk . Well that's going to partially change as Datsyuk is going to return to the ice tonight against the Sharks. Still, if Detroit fails to pick up two points, the Predators can take over the spot in the fourth seed with a win tonight. With Detroit and Nashville on a collision course, the home-ice is definitely worth playing for.

Others worth watching

7:30 ET, Buffalo at Florida: The Sabres had the best possible result in Friday's bubble battle as the Jets took a clean two points from the Capitals. Now Buffalo is three back of eighth and just one point behind ninth-place Winnipeg. The Panthers meanwhile can open up a five-point division lead and continue the push for an improbably two seed.

10:30 ET, Nashville at Los Angeles: We covered what's at stake for the Predators already and for the Kings it's that Pacific push/eighth-seed race. The good news for the Kings is that the offense is finally clicking, scoring at least three goals in each of the past four games.

7 ET, St. Louis at Tampa Bay (NHL Network): Really the only point of intrigue here is if this is the game where the Blues become the first team to hit 100 points or not, and officially punch a postseason ticket.

Your promised miscellany

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