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Flyers Gameday: 1/12/17 vs. VAN (Flyers Playoff Heroes Heritage Night)

January 12, 2017, 11:26 AM ET [584 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. CANUCKS

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (21-16-6) are back home on Thursday to take on Willie Desjardins' Vancouver Canucks (20-19-4). The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference clubs this season, and the lone game in Philadelphia. The teams will rematch in Vancouver on Feb. 19. Last year, the teams split the season series, which each winning on its home ice.

Thursday night's game is Flyers Playoff Heroes Night fourth in a series of Heritage Nights to celebrate the team's 50th Anniversary season. With 50-plus Flyers Alumni in town for Alumni Weekend (further highlighted by Friday night's Golden Anniversary Reception and Saturday's 50th Anniversary Game), there's no shortage of players and teams that can be honored during the video segments and interviews during stoppages of play.

Flyers Outlook

In the 11 matches following their 10-game winning streak, the Flyers have posted a 2-6-3 record. For the season, the Flyers are 13-6-3 on home ice and 8-10-3 on the road.

The Flyers seemed to be getting back on the right track heading into Tuesday's game in Buffalo. However, just as happened in the third period of their January 4 home match against the New York Rangers, a disastrous second period proved to be the Flyers' undoing in Buffalo. Philly played a decent first period but the wheels fell off in a second stanza,and the club fell behind 3-0. A late Brayden Schenn power play goal prevented a shut out, but was otherwise meaningless. Buffalo tacked on an empty netter to seal a 4-1 final.

Hakstol has frequently shaken up line combinations of late, and there were additional changes at Wednesday's practice at the Skate Zone. It was not clear how many of the changes would hold over for Thursday's game. Most notably, rookie forward Travis Konecny changed over from left wing to right wing and was moved onto Claude Giroux's line.

On the injury front Mark Streit (shoulder) fully participated in practice on Wednesday. He could be activated from long-term injured reserve by Saturday, but is unlikely to be cleared for this game. Streit skated on a pairing with Radko Gudas for much of practice, making it difficult to immediately discern which defenseman would be a healthy scratch. Michael Del Zotto (paired with Brandon Manning) took some extra skating on Wednesday, but frequent healthy scratch Nick Schultz is also a candidate to sit out, assuming Gudas (who is banged up but has been playing through it) is a go for this game.

Goals have been hard to come by in recent weeks for the Flyers, including most of the team's top offensive players.

Jakub Voracek leads the Flyers with 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) in 43 games. Claude Giroux, who celebrates his 29th birthday on Thursday, is second on the team with 35 points (10 goals, 25 assists), while All-Star Game selection Wayne Simmonds paces the club with 17 goals and has eight power play tallies among his 32 points.

Brayden Schenn is fourth on the Flyers' scoring leaderboard with 28 points (13 goals including a team-leading nine power play tallies, 15 assists) in 40 games. He's followed by rookie Travis Konecny (six goals, 14 assists), Gostisbehere (four goals, 15 assists, minus-13). Rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov has also has 19 points (three goals, 18 assists) while dressing in all 42 games.

In goal, Steve Mason has posted a 14-14-6 record, 2.80 GAA and .903 save percentage to date. Michal Neuvirth has a 5-2-0 record in 10 appearances with a 3.35 GAA and .867 save percentage.

Canucks Outlook

The Canucks, who bring a 5-13-2 road record (15-6-2 at home) into Thursday's game, won six games in a row until heading out on their current three-game road trip. Vancouver is 0-1-1 on the trip thus far.

The club enters this game coming off a 2-1 overtime road loss to the Nashville Predators. The Canucks were on the brink of suffering a 1-0 loss in regulation until Brandon Sutter's tally in the final 49 seconds forced overtime. Ryan Milller stopped 24 of 26 shots in a losing cause as Calle Järnkrok scored with 1.5 second left in OT.

Although the team's key players are all healthy enough to play, Vancouver has an extensive injury list among the supporting cast of role players. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson is out indefinitely with torn wrist ligaments. Also out are Jannik Hansen (knee), Philip Larsen (head), Derek Dorsett (neck) and Ben Hutton (hand).

NHL All-Star Game selection Bo Horvat leads the Canucks in scoring with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in 43 games. He is followed by Henrik Sedin (nine goals, 17 assists), Sven Baertschi (11 goals, 13 assists), Daniel Sedin (10 goals, 13 assists), Sutter (11 goals, 10 assists), Loui Eriksson (nine goals, 10 assists) and Markus Granlund (nine goals, eight assists).

Whereas the Flyers have gotten significant offensive contributions from the blueline this season -- although it has been spread around, rather than primarily coming from Gostisbehere and/or Streit, as in past years -- the Canucks have gotten very little offensive assistance from the defense corps. Ben Hutton's 11 points (four goals, seven assists) paces the blueline offensively.

In goal, veteran Miller (25 starts) and young veteran Jacob Markström (18 starts) have split time. Miller brings a 12-10-2 record, 2.59 GAA, .915 save percentage and one shutout into this game. Markström has posted an 8-9-2 record, 2.63 GAA and .912 save percentage.


Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.79 (10th), Canucks 2.37 (25th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.00 (26th), Canucks 2.84 (19th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 21.9% (9th), Canucks 13.7% (27th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 81.1% (18th), Canucks 80.7% (20th)
Shots on goal per game: Flyers 31.7 (6th), Canucks 27.5 (29th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.6 (8th), Canucks 30.7 (T-20th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.4% (7th), Canucks 52.3% (5th)

Projected Lineups (subject to change)

FLYERS

12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
25 Nick Cousins - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
22 Dale Weise - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 P-E Bellemare - 24 Matt Read

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto - 23 Brandon Manning
55 Nick Schultz - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere

35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]

Scratches: Mark Streit (LTIR, shoulder), Radko Gudas (healthy), Boyd Gordon (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy).

CANUCKS

22 Daniel Sedin - 33 Henrik Sedin - 21 Loui Eriksson
47 Sven Baertschi - 53 Bo Horvat - 14 Alexandre Burrows
60 Markus Granlund - 20 Brandon Sutter - 46 Jayson Megna
50 Brendan Guance - 45-Michael Chaput - 9 Jack Skille

23 Alexander Edler - 51 Troy Stecher
5 Luca Sbisa - 8 Chris Tanev
88 Nikita Tryamkin - 55 Alex Biega

30 Ryan Miller
[25 Jacob Markström]

Scratches: Anton Rodin (healthy), Andrey Pedan (healthy), Jannik Hansen (knee), Gudbranson (wrist), Larsen (IR, head), Dorsett (IR,neck), Ben Hutton (IR, hand).

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