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Flyers Gameday: 10/15/13 vs. Canucks

October 15, 2013, 8:14 AM ET [1044 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. CANUCKS (7:45 AM, EDT)

Seeking just their second win of the 2013-14 season, the Philadelphia Flyers (1-5-0) host John Tortorella's Vancouver Canucks (3-3-0). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7 p.m. eastern. The game will be televised locally on CSN Philly.

This is the first of two meetings between the interconference teams this season. They will rematch in Vancouver on Dec. 30.

The Flyers are coming off consecutive night losses on Friday at home against Phoenix (2-1) and on the road on Saturday in Detroit (5-2). The Canucks have also lost two in row. Last Thursday, the host Canucks were on the wrong end of a 4-1 game with the Sharks for the second time this month. On Saturday, the Canadiens downed the Canucks by the same score.


Flyers Outlook

The Flyers five-on-five play has been much improved over the last few games. Unfortunately, the team has continued to struggle to put pucks in the net in any manpower situation, has taken far too many penalties and was let down by both end of special teams in Saturday's 5-2 loss in Detroit.

With just eight goals scored through their first six games, the Flyers continued a franchise-history worst scoring pace to this juncture of the season. In the last few games, scoring chances have come with much greater frequency, but the results still aren't there.

Philadelphia is 0 for its last 15 on the power play over the last four games. They went 0-for-2 against Carolina and 0-for-4 against Detroit.

Through six games, Claude Giroux (one assist), Jakub Voracek (two assists), Wayne Simmonds (one assist), Matt Read (no points), Sean Couturier (two assists), Kimmo Timonen (no points) and Mark Streit (two assists, minus-four) are all still looking for their respective first goals of the season. Erik Gustafsson and Tye McGinn scored the Philly goals in Detroit.

Backup goaltender Ray Emery had a rough game on Saturday, which was part of the reason why the penalty kill struggled against a Detroit team that had entered the game 0-for-10 on the season. The other part of equation was that the Flyers simply took far too many minor penalties; seven in all, which the Red Wings converted into three of their four goals. The final Detroit goal was an empty netter.

Steve Mason, who has played very good hockey in all four of his starts to date, will return to the Flyers' net tonight. Otherwise, the team is likely to use the same lineup as Saturday.


Canucks Outlook

Irascible defense-first coach Tortorella has been understandably displeased with the way his team has defended in most of it first six games. The Canucks have yielded 20 goals to date, including eight in the last two games.

On Saturday, the Canucks fired 40 shots on Montreal goaltender Carey Price's net but had one goal to show for it. The turning point of the game came at 16:12 of the second period. With the Canucks playing on the power play, the Canadiens cleared the puck down the ice. With Lars Eller coming in on the forecheck, Roberto Luongo stopped the disc behind the net and gave it over to Dan Hamhuis. Here's what happened next:



The own-goal was a backbreaker for the Canucks. Montreal went on to add a pair of insurance goals in the third period to skate off with a 4-1 win.

Henrik Sedin scored the Canucks' only goal on Saturday. Mike Santorelli had the lone tally in
Thursday's 4-1 loss to San Jose.

On Saturday, the Canucks went 0-for-3 on the power play with the shorthanded goal against and just 1-for-3 on the penalty kill after entering the game perfect on the PK. For the season, Vancouver is 25th in the NHL on the power play (2-for-19, 10.5 percent) and 3rd on the penalty kill (19-for-21, 90.5 percent) with shorthanded goals scored by defenseman Jason Garrison and forward Brad Richardson.


PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (Subject to change)

FLYERS

15 Tye McGinn - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Michael Raffl - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
25 Max Talbot - 14 Sean Couturier - 24 Matt Read
45 Kris Newbury - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo

44 Kimmo Timonen - 26 Erik Gustafsson
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
32 Mark Streit - 22 Luke Schenn

35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]

Scratches: Jay Rosehill (healthy), Andrej Meszaros (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Scott Hartnell (upper-body), Vincent Lecavalier (lower-body), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).


CANUCKS

22 Daniel Sedin - 33 Henrik Sedin - 25 Mike Santorelli
20 Chris Higgins - 17 Ryan Kesler - 36 Jannik Hansen
7 David Booth - 15 Brad Richardson - 9 Zack Kassian
29 Tom Sestito - 32 Dale Weise - 21 Zac Dalpe

5 Jason Garrison - 3 Kevin Bieksa
2 Dan Hamhuis - 8 Chris Tanev
18 Ryan Stanton - 6 Yannick Weber

1 Roberto Luongo
[31 Eddie Läck]

Scratches: Andrew Alberts (healthy), Alexander Edler (NHL suspension), Alexandre Burrows (IR, foot), Jordan Schroeder (IR, broken foot), Nicklas Jensen (IR, shoulder).

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