On the heels of a grueling four-game road trip to open the 2024-25 regular season, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-1) will host Rick Tocchet's Vancouver Canucks (1-1-2) in the home opener on Saturday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
Saturday's game marks the lightning-fast conclusion of the Flyers' two-game season series against the Canucks. On opening night in Vancouver, the Flyers skated to a 3-2 (2-1) shootout victory.
Tyson Foerster (power play goal) and Cam York scored in regulation for the Flyers. Morgan Frost netted the winning shootout goal in the fifth round, while Travis Konecny also converted his shootout attempt. Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko each made their NHL debuts.
Samuel Ersson earned honors in stopping 24 of 26 shots before going 4-for-5 in denying shootout attempts. The penalty kill went 5-for-5 while the power play was 1-for-4. Nils Hoglander and Teddy Blueger scored for the Canucks in regulation. Goalie Kevin Lankinen took the hard-luck shootout loss.
Here are five things to watch on Saturday:
1. The 500/800 club
Flyers captain Sean Couturier, who made his NHL debut at age 18, is poised on Saturday to play in his 800th regular season game in the National Hockey League. Additionally, "Coots" is just one goal or assist away from registering his 500th career regular season point.
On the Vancouver side, veteran defenseman Tyler Myers is poised to attain the coveted Silver Stick milestone in Saturday's game: 1,000 career NHL regular season games.
2. Grinding through the fatigue factor
The Flyers' recent road trip saw the team repeatedly hop across time zones even after departing Philadelphia for Vancouver. The trip took the Flyers from Pacific Daylight Time (Vancouver) to Mountain Daylight Time (Calgary and Edmonton) and back to Pacific time (Seattle).
The team stayed overnight in Seattle on Thursday. Yesterday, the team traveled for much of the day to return to Philadelphia. In order to at least somewhat mitigate the "fatigue factor", the team did not hold a Saturday morning skate.
When clubs play games in which they are at a severe fatigue factor disadvantage -- the Canucks were already on Eastern time while the Flyers were traveling back from Seattle -- there are four universal keys to victory.
* Short shifts and line rolling whenever possible.
* The goaltender must step up as the team in front tries to create energy.
* Playing from ahead is a must because comebacks are exceptionally hard.
* Keeping penalties to a bare minimum.
3. Sarge takes charge
Veteran Flyers alternate captain Scott Laughton attempted to strap the club to his back on Thursday with a three-point game (two goals, one assist). In the first period he staked the team to 1-0 and 2-1 leads. In the third period, he was a catalyst as the team pushed back from a 5-2 deficit to get back within a single goal.
In fact, the Flyers most effective line against the Kraken for the majority of the game was the hard-working trio Ryan Poehling (two assists), Garnet Hathaway (two assists, six credited hits) and Laughton.
Laughton, who worked a nice give-and-go with Travis Konecny on a shorthanded goal, now has four points through the season's first four games.
4. Looking for 5-game power play streak
The Flyers have tallied at least one power play goal apiece in each of the season's first four games (5-for-19 overall), including Foerster's tally last Friday in Vancouver.
Flyers rookie forward Matvei Michkov is still looking for his first even strength point of the regular season -- the same can be said of many Flyers forwards -- but he also already racked up four power play points (two goals, two primary assists). Morgan Frost has three power play points (all via assists) to date.
The Canucks penalty kill has gone 10-for-13 through their first four games.The Vancouver power play is 3-for-14 overall and 3-for-9 since the Flyers held them off the scoreboard on five opening night power plays.
Philadelphia's penalty kill is 16-for-19 thus far. They've allowed one opposing 5-on-4, 5-on-3, and 4-on-3 power play goal apiece. Konecny's shorthanded goal in Calgary mitigated one of Calgary's two power play markers in that game.
While the PK itself has been a positive, the Flyers as a team are taking too many penalties early in the season.
Lastly, the Flyers need to be better at 5-on-5. Philly has already yielded 13 opposition goals at full strength while scoring just six (even with three of the Flyers' four goals in Seattle coming at 5-on-5). The Canucks are minus-two (six scored, eight allowed) at 5-on-5 to date.
5. Behind enemy lines: Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks have been on the east coast for most of the past week, while the Flyers were in western Canada and the pacific northwest. The Vancouver club got its Florida trip for the season finished with a 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday and a 3-2 overtime win on Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Through their first four games of the season, Brock Boeser (2g, 2a) and defenseman Quinn Hughes (1g, 3a) lead the Canucks with four points apiece. Conor Garland (2g, 1a) and Jake DeBrusk (3a) have three points to date.
Arturs Silovs and Lankinen have split the goalie duties in half over the first four games, with the Finnish-born Lankinen outplaying Latvian netminder Silovs in their respective two starts.
