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Tim Schaller draws in for injured Sven Baertschi as Canucks visit Flyers

February 4, 2019, 1:04 PM ET [299 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Monday February 4 - Vancouver Canucks at Philadelphia Flyers - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 52 GP, 24-22-6, 54 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Philadelphia Flyers: 52 GP, 23-23-6, 52 pts, sixth in Metropolitan Division

A 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks back on December 15 got Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol fired. Now, with rookie goaltending sensation Carter Hart in net, the Flyers are the hottest team in the league as they prepare to host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

The Canucks are also feeling pretty good about themselves, coming off another 5-1 win on Saturday night, this time against the Colorado Avalanche. But the Flyers have already climbed over five teams on their way up from the Eastern Conference basement and are now 11-8-2 under interim boss Scott Gordon, who had been doing fine work in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before he was promoted.

Philadelphia is now 9-5-1 in Hart's 15 starts to date. The 20-year-old has a 2.58 goals-against average and .921 save percentage, and is carving out a spot in the record books.




Hart didn't make his debut until December 18, but he may turn out to be Elias Pettersson's strongest rival for the Calder Trophy.




Hart was also just named the NHL's Second Star for last week, when he went 3-0-0 with wins over Winnipeg, Boston and Edmonton. The last two did come in overtime, though, and he gave up four against Edmonton on Saturday, so maybe he's ripe for the picking?

In addition to Hart, the Canucks will have another serious rookie of the year candidate to contend with for the first time.




After finishing second in league scoring last season with 102 points and earning fourth place in Hart Trophy voting, captain Claude Giroux has done plenty of heavy lifting again this year. With 56 points, he's currently 12 ahead of Jakub Voracek and 13 up on Sean Couturier, who just hit the 20-goal mark for the second-straight season and leads the team on that front.

The Flyers are also starting to see some nice contributions from sophomore Nolan Patrick, who scored his third game-winning goal of the year in overtime on Saturday to finish off the Oilers.

As for Vancouver—we all knew they couldn't stay completely healthy forever, right?




Sven Baertschi and Brandon Sutter are the Canucks' regulars who have missed the most time this season: both have appeared in just 22 of 52 games so far.

It's a relief to hear Travis Green go out of his way to say that Baertschi's issue is not related to the concussion that he suffered earlier this season, but it's worrisome that he has been sent home. Yes, the team is travelling with two extra forwards, but with three games in the next four nights, things can change quickly. We've seen this movie before.

Baertschi has been productive when he has been in the lineup this season, with eight goals and 13 poings in his 22 games. But it's certainly not a stretch to think of the 26-year-old as injury-prone. In his three previous seasons in Vancouver, he played 69, 68 and 53 games. If he misses the three remaining games on this trip, he won't even be able to reach 50 this year.

After being scratched for the last three games, Tim Schaller will draw into Baertschi's spot on the Canucks' top line, while Nikolay Goldobin will move into his place on the first power-play unit.




It's a big week for Jay Beagle—back in the Eastern Conference where he knows his way around, he's playing his 500th career game on Monday in Philly, then will return to Washington to face his old team for the first time on Tuesday. He was out with that broken arm when the Caps came through Vancouver back in October.

My dream of a rookie-vs-rookie goaltending matchup between Hart and Thatcher Demko has been thwarted but with the way Jacob Markstrom has been playing lately, I can't be disappointed about him getting the start. I guess we'll see how things go before we find out if Demko will face Alex Ovechkin and the defending Stanley Cup champs—who have been slumping lately—for his second start of the year on Tuesday.

Finally, another reminder that even though the Canucks have an early 4 p.m. puck drop on Monday, you can actually start getting your hockey fix a couple of hours earlier with the first round of the Beanpot Tournament on TSN2.

Last year was great, with Adam Gaudette winning the MVP for Northeastern. I'm expecting another strong showing from the defending champs this year, thanks in no small part to Canucks prospect Tyler Madden, who's tied for second in team scoring despite being only a freshman.

Northeastern plays Boston University at 5 p.m. PT. I'm probably even more interested to see Harvard take on Boston College at 2 p.m. PT. I've only seen defense prospect Jack Rathbone play in the Canucks' development camp scrimmages, so he's still a bit of an unknown entity to me. Now listed at 5'11" and 190 pounds on the Harvard roster, he has added some size since he was drafted at 5'10" and 172 pounds in June of 2017.

Rathbone has a solid 4-7-11 in 20 games this season with Harvard—again, not bad for a freshman.

Another interesting note about the tournament: all four schools have won in the last four years—Northeastern last season, Harvard in 2017, Boston College in 2016 and B.U. in 2015. Based on that, the trophy could be anybody's this year.

Enjoy the games!
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