Coming off their first win of the season, the Vancouver Canucks are in Philadelphia to face the Flyers on Saturday night as their four-game road trip rolls along.
The two teams met last week in Vancouver as the Canucks fell in a shootout during a game where they were down to five defencemen for 60+ minutes.
Through four games, the Canucks have done a respectable job of controlling the puck at five-on-five. They are third in the league for control of scoring chances, having 93 for and 74 against for a 55.7% control of five-on-five scoring chances.
Head coach Rick Tocchet still wants to see his team get closer to the net and be able to force their opposition to defend more high-danger chances.
J.T. Miller has still not been on the ice for a goal against at five-on-five and he came up big offensively for the Canucks on Thursday night with the overtime goal that sealed the victory.
As a team, the Canucks currently rank eighth in the league for faceoffs with a 53.9% win percentage. Miller is leading the way with a 61.4% win rate through four games. He is averaging 22 faceoffs a game.
The Flyers come into Saturday night after concluding a four-game road trip through the west. Following their win against the Canucks on October 11th, they lost their next three games, allowing a total of 16 goals against.
Saturday will be the Flyers’ home opener, and we all know how teams tend to get up and bring energy for their first game of the season on home ice.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- 24-year-old defenceman Cam York is leading the Flyers in ice time through four games – averaging 23:39 per game.
- Rookie Matvei Michkov has two goals and two assists through his first four NHL games after coming over from Russia this summer.
- Michkov is second out of Flyers forwards in average ice time per game with 19:16 ATOI.
- Samuel Ersson has been the much more impressive goaltender in the early part of the season. Ersson has a 1-0-1 record and was good against the Canucks last week; stopping 24 of the 26 shots he faced.
- Flyers head coach John Tortorella has made some changes to his lines since the Canucks played the Flyers. The notable changes start at the top with Michkov playing alongside Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost.
- Their second line is looking like Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny will surround 18-year-old centre Jett Luchanko.
- Michkov is tied with Scott Laughton (2g-2a) and Bobby Brink (1g-3a) for the team lead in points through four games.
- The Flyers’ power play has been clicking with efficiency. They have scored five of their 12 goals on the man advantage this season and their power play is clicking at 26.3% this season – good enough for 12th in the league.
The Story: Early Season Grinding
As much as the Canucks were happy to pick up their first win of the season on Thursday, head coach Rick Tocchet wants more from his guys in the coming games.
“We got some work to do but I thought there was some good stuff out there,” said Rick Tocchet following Thursday night’s overtime win over the Florida Panthers.
“We still have to clean some things up. When the other team makes a push, I think we need to play simpler.”
Teddy Blueger spoke about his team needing to stay on their toes and continue to push the pace of play no matter the time or score in the game.
Miller thought that Thursday night’s win was good for the group to take a bit of a breath but also knows that they need to continue to improve and focus on winning wall battles so that they can gain possession.
When and Where to Watch
Saturday night’s game is a 4:00 pm PT start time and can be viewed on Sportsnet for Hockey Night in Canada. If you’re looking for the radio broadcast, look no further than Sportsnet 650, your home of play-by-play voice Brendan Batchelor.
