Home Sweet Home: Flyers vs Canucks Gameday Preview
The Philadelphia Flyers return to the Wells Fargo Center tonight for their home opener against the Vancouver Canucks. After starting the season on the road with games in Columbus and Ottawa, the Flyers bring a 1-1-0 record back home.
As encouraging as Thursday’s game against Columbus was, Saturday afternoon was a friendly reminder as to how this team might be all season long. Saturday’s game showed quite a few of the flaws in the Flyers lineup and some of the growing pains that we’re going to go through this season.
The forecheck was not nearly good enough and they spent way too much time pinned in their own end against a tough Senators team. We’ll see if the Flyers can bounce back tonight against another young and hungry team in the Vancouver Canucks.
If you’re heading to the game like I am be prepared for it to be a madhouse down there. Phillies game 2 of the NLCS, Flyers home opener, and an international soccer game all going on. Already not looking forward to the traffic, but hopefully getting out of there won’t be as bad as the Flyers did move up the start time to 6:00pm.
Lineups:
Farabee-Couturier-Foerster/Brink
Tippett-Frost-Atkinson
Laughton-Cates-Konecny
Deslauriers-Poehling-Hathaway
York-Sanheim
Staal-Walker
Zamula-Seeler
Hart
Now, with no morning skate today we are unsure of the Flyers lineup so far. John Tortorella stated that Sean Couturier is banged up and he did not practice yesterday. Will he be in the lineup tonight? We aren’t sure just yet but if he will play but if he doesn’t that opens the door for Brink and Foerster to both be in the lineup. We should find out a little closer to game time if Coots will be in the lineup. It sucks that he is dealing with an injury but thankfully it is not anything related to his injury that kept him out all of last season.
I am expecting the defense to go back to the same lineup as opening night as while Andrae did not play bad in his debut, he didn’t have the best outing. Until the Flyers decided to go less heavy on the veterans you’re going to see the young guys in and out of the lineup.
Hart is expected to get the start again tonight for the home fans. Saturday was more of the defense in front of him falling apart than it was on him. Hart has played solid in the first two games and he will give the Flyers the best chance to win night in and night out.
Vancouver Canucks
Kuzmenko-Pettersson-Garland
Di Giuseppe-Miller-Boeser
Joshua-Suter-Beauvillier
Hoglander-Lafferty-Studnicka
Hughes-Hronek
Cole-Myers
Soucy-Juulsen
Demko
DeSmith
Vancouver is off to a blazing hot start as they have taken down Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers twice to start their season. Brock Boeser scored four goals in the opener in route to an 8-1 win and then they followed that up a few days later with a 4-3 win.
Between Boeser, Pettersson, and JT Miller the Canucks will be no easy task for the Flyers especially if Sean Couturier doesn’t play.
The Canucks defense is highlighted by newly named Captain Quinn Hughes but aside from him their defense isn’t the strongest part of their team.
In net it is expected to be Thatcher Demko who is 1-0-0 with a 1.25 GAA and a .955 SV%. The Canucks will look to continue their hot start as they begin a four game road trip starting with tonight.
Final Thoughts:
The Flyers will need to have a much better outing then they did on Saturday. Ottawa was really able to get their forecheck established early and often and the Flyers struggled to slow them down. Former Flyer Rick Tocchet is behind the bench for the Canucks so you know he will have a little extra motivation to beat his former team.
If Coots is indeed not playing this matchup will get a lot harder for the Flyers as they won’t have someone to shut down that top line. Boeser and Pettersson are a lethal combo and you can’t forget about Connor Garland who can score goals as well.
Establishing the forecheck of their own will be a major key for the Flyers tonight. If they can get in and pressure this Canucks defense they will be sure to make mistake that will lead to scoring chances.
Travis Konecny has scored three goals in the first two games and will be looking to make it three straight games with a goal. Could he be the Flyers first 40 goal scorer since Jeff Carter?
Owen Tippett has yet to find the back of the net but the encouraging sign is that he is firing the puck. The problem is that he is just not hitting the net. If he can finally get the puck on target tonight could be the night he gets his first of the season.
Reminder that this game starts at 6:00pm due to the Phillies NLCS game 2 so make sure you’re aware of that if you’re heading down.
Hopefully the Flyers can bounce back and get a win on home ice.
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-Walsh