Preview: Flyers look to remain unbeaten against the Vancouver Canucks
Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
In what might be the most important event in Philly this weekend
The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off a thrilling 5-2 victory over the division rival, New Jersey Devils. Meanwhile the Vancouver Canucks are looking for their fist victory of this early season, after falling to the Edmonton Oilers 5-3.
The Flyers were lead by Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny up front, with each of them tallying two goals. On the back end, the new top defense pairing of Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAangelo combined for four assist and 13 blocked shots.
The Canucks fell victim to the Oilers three-headed monster of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Darnell Nurse. The three combined for all five Oilers goals and a total of nine points. Canucks center J.T. Miller had a goal and assist, while Elias Pettersson also scored in the loss. Thatcher Demko was in net for Vancouver stopping 20 of 24 shots.
Flyers Projected Lineup
Scott Laughton-Kevin Hayes-Travis Konecny
James van Riemsdyk-Morgan Frost-Tanner Laczynski
Joel Farabee-Noah Cates-Wade Allison
Nicolas Deslauriers-Jackson Cates
Ivan Provorov-Tony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim-Justin Braun
Egor Zamula-Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
(Samuel Ersson)
Canucks Projected Lineup
Tanner Pearson-J.T. Miller-Brock Boeser
AndrewI Kuzmenko-Elias Pettersson-Nils Hoglander
Vastly Podkolzon-Bo Horvat-Conor Garland
Dakota Johnson-Nils-Aman-Curtis Lazar
Quinn Hughes-Luke Schenn
Oliver Emmanuel Larsson-Tucker Poolman
Riley Stillman-Kyle Burroughs
Thatcher Demko
(Spencer Martin)
What to Watch For
The Canucks special teams were terrible in terrible in the season opener with the power-play going 1/8 and there penalty kill allowing three goals on four Edmonton opportunities. Meanwhile, the Flyers were 1/3 on their own power-play and killed 2/3 penalties they faced. Look for the Flyers to try and draw a lot of penalties and hopefully make the Canucks pay.
Carter Hart was solid in the opener stopping 35 of the 37 shots he faced. Having not played in any preseason games there was some speculation about how sharp he would look. The first goal was absolutely one he would want to have back and one that frankly cannot go in at this level. His glove side looked a little shaky all game with him dropping a few pucks, and being slow to react on some others. Now that he has a game under his belt, well watch to see how he looks in his second outing of the season.
While were all Flyers fans, we are also all hockey fans, and it’s fun to watch the top players in the league. Vancouver has a few dynamic players but namely Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson. In 206 career games Hughes has 166 points, while Pettersson has 222 points in 246 career games played. The Flyers will need to contain these two players if they’ll be successful this afternoon.
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