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Weekend preview: Flyers-Pens rivalry renewed, Bruins look to stay hot

Crosby and Giroux

A quick look ahead at some of the narratives at play this weekend…

Keystone state clash

It’s going to be a big 48 hours in Pennsylvania as the Flyers and Penguins play back-to-back games this Saturday and Sunday. The first affair will go at Wells Fargo (Saturday, 1 p.m. ET), where the two teams have already met once this season -- a 4-1 Penguins win, in which Sidney Crosby notched 1G-1A while Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 of 25 shots for the victory.

On Sunday, the two teams will meet at Consol Energy Center (12:30 p.m. ET, NBC), where the Flyers have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success over the last three regular seasons. Philly is 4-1-1 in the last six head-to-head matchups in Pittsburgh and has been led by young forward Brayden Schenn, who has five points in the six games.

Streaking B’s

The NHL’s hottest team out of the Olympic break -- the Boston Bruins -- will look to stay scorching this weekend when they host the Hurricanes at TD Garden on Saturday.

Boston has won seven straight and is 7-1-1 since players returned from the Winter Games in Sochi, collecting 15 of a possible 18 points to open up a massive lead in the Atlantic Division.

Consider this: heading into the Olympic break, the B’s had 78 points, seven clear of second-place Tampa Bay in the division.

Now, Boston has 93 points and is 13 up on second-place Toronto.

Elsewhere...

-- The latest installment of the Freeway Faceoff will go in Los Angeles on Saturday, when the Kings host the Ducks. These two heated California rivals are headed in opposite directions at the moment, as the Ducks are 3-5-2 over their last 10 games while the Kings are 8-2-0 over the same span. The third Cali-based team, San Jose, will be keeping a close eye on this tilt as the Sharks enter the weekend tied on points with the Ducks for top spot in the Pacific Division, with 93.

-- On Sunday night, NBCSN brings the latest installment of the Detroit-Chicago rivalry (7:30 p.m. ET). This will be a rematch of last year’s classic Western Conference semifinal playoff, in which the ‘Hawks rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Wings in overtime of Game 7.