It isn’t the best time of the year for the Philadelphia Flyers to be struggling, especially with the red-hot Washington Capitals coming to town Tuesday night.

The Flyers hold a very slim two-point lead over the surging Caps in the Eastern Conference standings as the two teams square off. Should the Flyers lose in regulation, they would wake up Wednesday morning tied with the Caps.

Philadelphia is 4-4-2 in its past 10 games, while the Capitals are 9-1-0 since March 1.

One good thing for the Flyers is the fact they have 11 games left, counting Tuesday’s showdown. Washington only has nine games to go, including Tuesday’s meeting. Another positive for Philadelphia: Starting Tuesday, four of the next six games are in Philadelphia, with two short road trips to face the Islanders in New York and Pittsburgh.

The Flyers beat Dallas 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday in Dallas, capping a 2-1 road trip that also included a victory at Florida and a shootout loss at Atlanta.

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Midway through their 82-game schedule, the Philadelphia Flyers hold the top spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia, which surprised the hockey world by winning the East and reaching the Stanley Cup finals last summer as a No. 7 seed, sits atop the East with a 26-10-5 record. Its 57 points stands one ahead of Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division, and is third in the NHL behind Vancouver (60 points) and Detroit (59).

The Flyers are 7-3-0 in their past 10 games, having won three in a row coming into Tuesday night’s contest at Buffalo. Philadelphia extended its winning streak Saturday, downing New Jersey 2-1 at home. Brian Boucher stopped 34 shots in the victory.

The meeting at Buffalo begins a four-game road trip for Philadelphia. The Flyers travel to Boston on Thursday, play in Atlanta on Friday and face the Rangers in New York on Sunday.

Philadelphia returns home Jan. 18 to face Washington.

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The Philadelphia Flyers barely made it into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the second round, they trailed the series three games to zero.

Didn’t matter. Last spring, the Flyers rose from the middle of the pack to become the best of the East.

Philly won the Eastern Conference championship and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in stunning fashion. After beating the New York Rangers in the 82nd and final game of the regular season, the Flyers beat New Jersey to make the second round.

There, Philly trailed Boston three games to none, but the Flyers became just the fourth team in the history of American professional sports to rally from a 3-0 series deficit, stunning the Bruins. Philly, the No. 7 seed, then beat eighth seed Montreal to reach the Finals, where the Flyers lost to Chicago.

Philly comes into the season looking to continue last spring’s winning ways. The puck drops on the new season Oct. 7 at Pittsburgh. The home opener is Oct. 11 against Colorado.

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The goal of any team opening a playoff series on the road is to try and split the first two games.

The Philadelphia Flyers accomplished just that in the first two games of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against New Jersey. Even though the Flyers gave up two goals in the final 4:04 Friday night and dropped Game 2 5-3, Philly goes home even at 1-1 in the series.

Game 3 is Sunday in Philadelphia, with Game 4 on Tuesday.

Philly gave up an early short-handed goal, but rallied with goals from Arron Asham and Claude Giroux to carry a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Down 3-2 in the second, Chris Pronger tied the game with 1:12 left in the second.

But New Jersey scored the go-ahead goal with 4:04 left against Brian Boucher, and added an empty-net tally with 33 seconds to go. Boucher finished with 28 saves.

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