After a few days off for the holidays, the Vancouver Canucks welcome the Philadelphia Flyers to Rogers Arena for a matchup between two of the hottest teams in the NHL during the month of December.
This month, the Canucks hold an 8-1-2 record while the Flyers are right behind them at 7-1-2. Each of these teams has benefited from good goaltending and has done a good job of capitalizing on their shots from high-danger areas.
The Flyers have been running out two young goaltenders this season. Carter Hart is leading the way with 18 starts while Samuel Ersson has started 13 games. Ersson has started more games this month but that is due to Hart battling sickness a couple of weeks ago.
Special teams could be a major factor in this game. The Flyers have the fourth-best penalty kill in the league – clicking at 85.8%. Their power play, however, sits at a league-worst 10.6% conversion percentage.
The Flyers’ newly assembled top line of Owen Tippett, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny have not spent much time together this season. Couturier and Konecny have been together for a total of 216 minutes at five-on-five and have been on the ice for 11 goals scored and nine goals against. Newcomer Tippett adds a lethal shot that was a big reason why he was selected 10th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
Konecny leads the Flyers with 16 goals and 27 points. He also has more shorthanded goals (3) than power play goals (2) this season and is paired up with Scott Laughton as the top penalty-killing forward group. Laughton also has a shorthanded goal this season.
The Flyers are fourth in the league with seven shorthanded goals this season. The Canucks are the only team in the league who have not allowed a shorthanded goal against.
This season, we’ve seen an influx of youth in the Flyers’ lineup. They have a handful of 23 and under players who are making an impact on a nightly basis.
Defenceman Yegor Zamula is the outlier of the youngsters as the undrafted free agent of the young group but was the game-winning goal scorer in the match between these two teams earlier this season.
Aside from Zamula, Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink and Cam York were all selected by the Flyers with a top-35 pick in the past five NHL drafts.
23-year-old Farabee has 11 goals and 11 assists on the year, and 23-year-old York is becoming a trusted defender and averaging a Sedin brother-approved 22:33 in ice time this season.
Quick hits on the competition:
- Both goalies have been hot this month, Ersson holds a 4-1-1 record with a .919% save percentage. Hart has a 3-0-1 record and a .925% save percentage.
- The Flyers kick off a four-game road trip with their game in Vancouver on Thursday before heading to play Seattle on Friday and wrap up the trip with a pair of games in Alberta.
- Flyers head coach John Tortorella spent one year as the Canucks’ head coach. He went 36-35-11 in the 2013-14 season.
- The Flyers are currently holding onto third place in the Metropolitan division with an 18-11-4 record. They are one of the better teams on the road and hold a 10-4-3 record away from home.
- The Flyers handed the Canucks their first loss of the season on October 17th. Hart made 26 saves en route to a shutout and Couturier and Zamula were the goal scorers in a 2-0 Flyers win.
Vancouver is hungry to get back to action after a holiday break that had them sitting first in the league with a 23-9-3 record for 49 points.
Home ice has been a definite advantage for the Canucks this season. With the help of the Rogers Arena crowd, we’ve seen the Canucks put up a 13-3-1 record on home ice.
Heading into the holiday break, so much time was spent gushing about the Canucks third line of Conor Garland, Teddy Blueger, and Dakota Joshua. The trio has spent 167 minutes of five-on-five play together this season and has outscored their opposition 10-4 in their time spent together.
Over the past six games, Blueger leads the way offensively with eight points. Garland and Joshua each have seven and Joshua has scored five goals in the line’s hot stretch. All 23 points this line has combined for over the past six games have come at five-on-five.
Joshua has been producing offensively and also playing physically all season long. He is one of six players in the league with 100 hits this season.
Coming out of the break, the Canucks have three players in the top-10 for scoring. J.T. Miller leads the way with 48 points and that’s good enough for third in the league. Quinn Hughes leads the league in defenceman scoring with 44 points and is tied for fifth in league scoring. Elias Pettersson has 43 points and is ninth in scoring.
Brock Boeser is second in the league for goals with 24 on the season. Boeser only trails Auston Matthews, who has scored 28 goals.
After a tumultuous schedule leading up to the holiday break, Thursday’s game will be the Canucks’ final one of 2023. There’s a seven-game road trip beginning on January 4th but the Canucks will look to use their time off to work hard in practice in preparation for the second half of the season.
Hottest Canucks over the Last Five:
Teddy Blueger: 2g-5a-7p
Conor Garland: 1g-5a-6p
Dakota Joshua: 3g-2a-5p
Elias Pettersson: 2g-3a-5p
Quinn Hughes: 1g-4a-5p
Thursday’s game is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT and can be viewed on Sportsnet while the radio broadcast can be heard on Sportsnet 650 with Brendan Batchelor on the call.
