Pluses, minuses for Flyers-Hurricanes, Islanders-Canucks

NHL Network and ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes will offer his thoughts for big games each week throughout the season.

The Philadelphia Flyers (7-7-1) visit the Carolina Hurricanes (9-6-0) at PNC Arena on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; MAX, TNT, TVAS). Then the New York Islanders (5-6-3) play the Vancouver Canucks (11-3-1) at Rogers Place (10 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNP, TNT, MAX).

Here's my breakdown of the games.

Flyers

Pluses: They're playing more competitively and its showing in the results. This will be the final game of a four-game road trip, they're going for their third straight win and should be getting goalie Carter Hart (mid body, food poisoning) back for this one. Morgan Frost who's been a healthy scratch, returned and scored two goals in a 4-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 11. Cam Atkinson (12 points) and Sean Couturier (10 points) are off to great starts after missing last season because of injuries. And their leading scorer, defenseman Travis Sanheim, has 14 points in 15 games.

Minuses: Last season, the Flyers ranked last on the power play (15.6 percent). This season they're tied with the St. Louis Blues for 30th (7.7 percent) with only four goals (4-for-52) on the man-advantage this season. If that improves, they could be in the mix for a wild card spot this season.

Hurricanes

Pluses: They haven't hit their A-game yet, but they've won six of eight (6-2-0). I do love their offensive depth with six players having at least 10 points this season: Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Sebastian Aho (13 each), Martin Necas and Brady Skjei (12 each) and Teuvo Teravainen and Seth Jarvis (10 each). For my money, they have one of the best coaches and motivators in the world in Rod Brind'Amour.

Minuses: Frederik Andersen is sidelined with an injury. Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov each have a goals-against average more than 3.00 and a save percentage under .900, which isn't typical for either of them. Other than that, the team defense hasn't been good, though it's improved since the beginning of the season. This is a team known for being great on both sides of the puck, but they've allowed at least three goals nine times in 15 games.

Islanders

Pluses: Though it's been a struggle offensively and defensively for them, goaltending hasn't been the problem. Although Ilya Sorokin's numbers haven't been great (3-3-3, 3.21 GAA, .907 save percentage, one shutout), he is still a top five goalie in the NHL, and veteran Semyon Varlamov has been excellent as the backup (2-3-0, 2.04 GAA, .940 save percentage, two shutouts).

Minuses: They're one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL (2.36 goals per game; tied for 30th) and are 25th on the power play (15.8 percent) and 25th on the penalty kill (73.9 percent). New York has been outscored 21-9 during their five-game losing streak (0-4-1) and has allowed at least four goals in each. Noah Dobson leads them with 12 points. That's usually not a great sign if a defenseman is leading your team in points.

Canucks

Pluses: Rick Tocchet has done an outstanding job in his first full season as coach. They have defended well, starting with the top pair of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. The Canucks have won six of seven and nine of 11 and have dominated at Rogers Arena, going 5-0-1, scoring the most goals per game (4.83) and allowing the fewest (1.50) among all NHL teams at home. Brock Boeser has 12 goals and is on pace for his first 30-goal season. Elias Pettersson (25 points), J.T. Miller and Hughes (23 each) give Vancouver three players with at least 20. The New Jersey Devils are the only other team in the NHL with more than one player with 20-plus (Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt). Goalie Thatcher Demko is healthy but let's not forget about backup Casey DeSmith, who is 4-0-1 with a 2.67 GAA and .922 save percentage.

Minuses: So far this season one of the only negative things has been the penalty kill, which ranks 18th (78.0 percent) after it finished last in 2022-23 (71.6 percent). Vancouver brought in players to help with that this season, but one of them (forward Teddy Blueger) has only played one game because of an injury.