5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Canucks

Coming off a 5-2 opening night victory, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0) will host Bruce Boudreau's Vancouver Canucks (0-1-0) at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. Game time is 4:00 p.m. EDT.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised locally on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference clubs. The teams will rematch in Vancouver on Feb. 18. Last season, the Flyers went 1-0-1 against the Canucks losing 5-4 (2-0) at home via shootout on opening night and, 13 nights later, skating to a 2-1 win at Rogers Arena.
Here are five things to track during Saturday's game:
1. A (slightly) different look
The Flyers did not get through opening night unscathed in terms of injuries. Owen Tippett, a player on whom the Flyers are counting on for a breakthrough offensive season in 2021-22, went down in the first period of the opener against New Jersey. Late in the first period, Tippett collided with New Jersey's Ondrej Palat and did not play in the second or third periods.
Tippett is officially day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The Flyers were missing Cam Atkinson (day-to-day, upper body) and Rasmus Ristolainen (day-to-day, undisclosed) from the lineup. Tortorella said after practice on Friday that none of the players will be available for Saturday. This was not a surprise as none of the players participated in the on-ice practice. Sean Couturier (IR, back) is skating on his own and has said he's progressed well but does not yet have a timetable to practice or play.
On Friday, the Flyers made three roster moves. There could be another forthcoming on Saturday.
The team recalled Jackson Cates from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He practiced with the club on Friday. With Tanner Laczynski moving up mid-game on Thursday from the fourth line center spot to right wing on a line with James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Frost, the older Cates brother will center the fourth line against the Canucks.
Laczynski played well in the opener, both before and after the switch from center to wing. He performed well on both sides of the puck, won the majority of his board battles, and assisted (along with JVR) on 5-on-5 and empty-net goals scored by Frost.
On Friday, the Flyers placed right winger Haydon Hodgson on waivers for purposes of assigning him to the Phantoms. Tortorella was not happy with Hodgson's overall play in training camp and also believed that he struggled in the opener against New Jersey. As a result, the Flyers shortened the bench and went with 10 forwards for much of the latter portion of the game. Hodgson skated just 4:46 across 10 shifts.
Additionally, the Flyers loaned rookie defenseman Ronnie Attard to the Phantoms. He was scratched in the opener and the organization prefers that he see regular ice time for Lehigh Valley.
Assuming Hodgson clears waivers and is assigned to the Phantoms on Saturday (the Flyers would not be obligated to send him down if he clears), the Flyers have only 11 healthy forwards even with the Jackson Cates recall due to the unavailability of Atkinson and Tippett. With Ristolainen out for at least one more game and Attard with the Phantoms, Philly has six healthy defensemen available.
The Flyers could call up another forward from Lehigh Valley on Saturday, or keep Hodgson around to dress for this game as the 12th forward. Alternatively, they could recall a defenseman and dress seven D. Veteran depth blueliner Nick Seeler has periodically taken shifts at wing during his time with the Flyers. Seeler played on a defense pairing with Egor Zamula in the opener.
2. Structure and mental toughness.
These are going to be recurring themes with Tortorella as he works toward trying to instill an identity with his team. Thursday's win against the Devils was hard-working, physical and resilient but the Flyers are very much still in the mode of proving themselves. On Thursday, they bent at times (getting outshot and outchanced) but did not break.
The first half of Flyers' training camp was almost entirely focused on conditioning and will. The latter portion, especially over the lengthy break between the final exhibition game and opening night, heavily emphasized systems and structure.
Make no mistake: Even with the Flyers' offense scoring five times and Carter Hart settling in to play very well in a 35-save performance after a stoppable first New Jersey goal, this team is still very much a work in progress in two of the biggest areas that Tortorella strives to overhaul.
3. Konecny and Hayes.
In the absence of Couturier, it becomes even more imperative for Kevin Hayes to remain healthy and pick up where he left off in the final quarter of his injury-riddled 2021-22 season. One Hayes got reasonably healthy, he looked much more the player who helped boost the club in 2019-20. Hayes reported to camp in the best shape of his career and had a decent -- not spectacular but solid and healthy -- camp.
On opening night, Konecny deservingly received accolades for scoring 5-on-5 and power play goals from the deep slot. Hayes provided excellent setup passes on both. The 2022-23 season is a vital one for Konecny, too. He led the Flyers in scoring last with 52 points (16g, 36a) but it was largely a second straight underachieving and excessively streaky season after being an NHL All-Star in 2019-20.
One of the most encouraging signs from opening night is the way that Konecny and Frost stepped up. On a team that Tortorella readily admits must "score-by-committee" to win, Konecny in particular is vital to being an offensive tone-setter. Frost is more of a natural playmaker than a pure goal-scorer but he, too, is someone the team needs to create offense.
4. Allison and Laczynski
Wade Allison and Laczynski would both probably be in their second or third full or nearly-full NHL seasons by this point if not for a series of injuries that forced them to miss significant time. Both are now healthy and being counted on to be productive members of the NHL lineup.
Allison brings a dual value to the lineup: aggressive forechecking and goal-scoring potential. In the trenches, Flyers were one of the NHL's weakest teams in board battles last season. The club has shown hints of potential improvement but there is a long way to go. A healthy Allison is vital in the team's drive to win more battles and create space.
In terms of scoring, Allison has two different ways he can tally: at the net or on the flank. On Thursday, Allison notched the Flyers' first goal by getting to the net and slam-dunking a rebound that came right to him. He also has at his disposal a very heavy one-timer if he can find a seam to set up around the dots or within the slot.
Laczynski brings a lot of two-way versatility. Move him up in the lineup and he is capable of chipping in offensively even at the NHL level. There is a skill element to his game that has shown at the collegiate and AHL levels but really hasn't had much opportunity to emerge at the NHL level. After Tippett went down in the opener and Laczynski moved up from 4C to 3RW, he showed some of the offensive upside including a nifty centering feed to Frost on what proved to be the game-winning goal.
Although Laczynski isn't necessarily a player who doles out board rattling hits, he's a heavy presence in the trenches who is hard to separate from the puck. He's also reliable in defensive situations. This combination of elements was always something the Flyers didn't have to squint too hard in envisioning in their NHL lineup. Unfortunately, injuries (including surgeries on both hips and core-muscle repair) kept getting in the way and slowing him down for a while even after his return.
This time around, neither Allison nor Laczynski are in "catch-up" mode following pre-season injuries. The Flyers would greatly benefit if it stays that way.
As of this writing, based on Friday's practice combinations, the Flyers lineup for Saturday could look like this:
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 49 Noah Cates - 57 Wade Allison
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 58 Tanner Laczynski
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 59 Jackson Cates - ?? (42 Hayden Hodgson or recall)
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks sustained a 5-3 opening night road loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday. Vancouver led, 2-0, at the first intermission on goals by Elias Pettersson on a second-effort play at the net after collecting an Edmonton turnover and a J.T. Miller wrist shot from the circle.
In the opening minute of the second period, rookie Andrei Kuzmenko went the net and scored his first NHL goal on a power-play slam dunk off a setup pass from Miller to open a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately for the Canucks, the high-powered Oilers attack struck back for three second period goals (Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Darnell Nurse) and two more by McDavid in the third period to complete both a hat trick and a comeback victory.
In a losing cause, Thatcher Demko stopped 20 of 24 shots. The Canucks went 1-for-8 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Boudreau remains one coaching victory away from 600 regular season wins. He is vying on Saturday to become the 22nd head coach in NHL history (fifth still-active coach) to reach that milestone. Also of note: Mike Yeo, who served the majority of last season as the Flyers' interim head coach and was previously the Flyers defense and penalty kill coach, was hired by the Canucks this offseason as an assistant to Boudreau. Yeo filled a vacancy left by Brad Shaw departing for the Flyers to serve as defense/PK coach under Tortorella.
Below are the line combinations that the Canucks featured on opening night: