GAME 3: FLYERS @ CANUCKS
Playing their first official road game of the season -- the neutral site opener in Prague was officially a home game -- Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (2-0-0) start a three-game western Canada with a game against Travis Green's Vancouver Canucks (1-2-0). Game time at Rogers Arena is 10:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBC Sports Philadelphia. The radio broadcast is in on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the interconference clubs. They will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on Nov. 25.
Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-0 against the Canucks, with the home team prevailing in each game. The initial game, a 5-1 Canucks win on Dec. 15, was the final game of Dave Hakstol's tenure as head coach. In Philadelphia on Feb. 4, goals by Jakub Voracek and Sean Couturier were just enough, as Carter Hart made 41 saves to nail down a 2-1 win.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Games have been sparse for the Flyers so far, but the travel has been extensive. Dating back to Sept. 30, the Flyers have been in Switzerland for an exhibition game, Prague for the regular season opener, briefly at home for a practice and the Wells Fargo Center opener and now begin a three-game western Canada road trip that will continue on Tuesday in Calgary and conclude the next night in Calgary.
In last Friday's game, the Flyers never trailed and went on defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, in the regular season opener at 02 Arena in Prague. Travis Konecny led the way offensively with two goals and an assist, while Oskar Lindblom and Michael Raffl chipped in one goal apiece.
Carter Hart earned the win in goal, stopping 28 of 31 shots. On Tuesday, the 21-year-old Hart became the youngest goaltender in Flyers history to record a shutout, as he blanked the New Jersey Devils on 25 shots.
The Flyers set a strong tone early in the first period but New Jersey pushed back as the stanza moved along. Philly dominated the final 40 minutes.
The Flyers got goals from Ivan Provorov (power play, 1st), Kevin Hayes (power play, 1st of the season and first as a Flyer), Sean Couturier (1st) and Travis Konecny (3rd). Both Konecny, who had had back-to-back multi-point games to start the season (3g, 2a), and Provorov had one assist in addition to their respective goals. Matt Niskanen (1st assist of the season and as a Flyer), Claude Giroux (1st assist) and Oskar Lindblom (1st assist) chipped in one helper apiece.
Overall, the Flyers owned most of the important areas of the game: puck possession, goaltending, special teams, forecheck, 50-50 battles and faceoffs. The challenge now is to build on that as they go on the road.
According to Bob McKenzie, center Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder) is on the trip with the team. However, he is not yet close to playing.
CANUCKS OUTLOOK
The Canucks season started out with a 3-2 road loss in Edmonton last Wednesday, followed by a 3-0 blanking in Calgary. However, in the home opener at Rogers Arena, the Canucks crushed the LA Kings, 8-2.
J.T. Miller enjoyed a four-point game against LA (1g, 3a) while Quinn Hughes notched his first NHL goal and added an assist and Brandon Miller had two tallies and an assist. Jacob Markström turned back 37 of 39 shots to earn the victory. In the third period, AleX Edler and Josh Leivo scored, before Sutter added another notch to the final 8-2 blowout.
The Canucks have named 24-year-old center Bo Horvat as the new team captain. Coming off a 27-goal, 61-point season last year, he has one assist through three games to date.
PROJECTED LINES (Subject to change)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 13 Kevin Hayes - 93 Jakub Voracek
23 Oskar Lindblom - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton- 81 Carsen Twarynski
82 Connor Bunnaman - 12 Michael Raffl- 18 Tyler Pitlick
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 15 Matt Niskanen
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Hayes, JVR, Voracek, Gostisbehere.
Power Play 2: Lindblom, Couturier, Konecny, Provorov, Niskanen
Scratches: 55 Sam Morin (healthy).
Injured non-roster: 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines), 3 Andy Welinski (lower body).
CANUCKS
9 J.T. Miller - 40 Elias Pettersson - Brock Boeser
70 Tanner Pearson - 53 Bo Horvat - 17 Josh Leivo
79 Micheal Ferland - 88 Adam Gaudette - 20 Brandon Sutter
79 Tim Schaller - 83 Jay Beagle - 18 Jake Virtanen
23 Alexander Edler - 57 Tyler Myers
43 Quinn Hughes - 8 Chris Tanev
4 Jordie Benn - 51 Troy Stecher
25 Jacob Markström
[35 Thatcher Demko]
Power play 1: Miller, Pettersson, Boeser, Horvat, Edler.
Power play 2: Pearson, Gaudette, Leivo, Hughes, Myers.
Scratches: 5 Oscar Fantenberg (concussion, day-to-day), 21 Loui Eriksson (healthy).
Injured reserve: 26 Antoine Roussel (ACL surgery), 64 Tyler Motte (upper body).
*********
Phantoms Update
A dominant first period for the entire team and a spectacular goal off the rush by Joel Farabee in his professional debut highlighted a solid 4-1 win for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms over the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday night at the PPL Center.
The Phantoms outshot the Pens by a 16-2 in the first period and took a 2-0 lead to the locker room.
Registering his first point of the season and second pro point, Isaac Ratcliffe stripped his check of the puck and Kurtis Gabriel fired a tracer past Casey DeSmith (25 saves on 29 shots) for Lehigh Valley's first goal of the season at the 15:35 mark.
Lehigh Valley did everything but score on their first power play, but bagged a goal right after it expired. Mikhail Vorobyev took a cross ice feed from Cal O'Reilly and buried a shot upstairs to extend the lead to 2-0 at the 19:24 mark of the first period.
Playing his first game of the season, Alex Lyon wasn't tested much but, apart from a Stefan Noesen power play goal from the top of the left circle that snuck through the pads at the 38-second mark of the middle frame, he handled everything sent his way (18 saves on 19 shots).
The game's most memorable moment happened at 4:39 of the middle frame. On a counterattack, Phil Myers sent a perfect lead pass that caught Farabee in stride and sent him in one-on-one with a defenseman. Farabee dangled and broke free with a cut to his left, got DeSmith to commit early and slid the puck into the cage. Greg Carey got the secondary assist.
Barely a minute later, at 5:48, Chris Bigras scored from outside the dot in the left circle on a seeing-eye shot that DeSmith didn't quite get enough of to stop. The assists went to Mark Friedman and Rubtsov.
As the second period moved along, the Phantoms got pucks in deep but weren't able create as many chances. WB/S ended up putting 11 on net to eight for Lehigh Valley. The Phantoms closed things out efficiently in the third period, holding the Pens to six shots on goal despite a pair of WB/S power plays.
Overall, Friday's game was a nice step in the right direction for the Phantoms, who struggled to create much in quantity or finish anything in their opening night shut out loss to Providence. On this night, most of the team played pretty effectively.
Farabee needed a couple shifts to get going after not playing since the Flyers' Sept. 30 game in Switzerland, but he settled in fast and went on to display the form he did through most of Flyers training camp -- and got rewarded, finally, offensively.
Phil Myers played a solid and efficient all-around game. He admitted after the game that he was "heartbroken" to be sent down to the Phantoms again as the final NHL cuts were made by the Flyers, but also said that he felt he could have had a better NHL camp and that he's since gotten refocused.
Playing his second pro game, Morgan Frost remained snakebitten since the NHL preseason. He had a great look from the slot early but fired a puck over the net and later had a near goal from the side of the net. Later, he teed up good a good power play chance for Farabee on the power play but DeSmith got it, and found Greg Carey with an open look but Carey missed on his one-timer attempt. As the game progressed, Frost pressed at times offensively, trying to do a little too much stickhandling at times, but played a sound game in other areas. He and linemate Nicolas Aube-Kubel seemed to be developing some chemistry, and vet Andy Andreoff was good at creating some space for Frost, and won some battles in deep. Early in the third period, it was Frost who took a tripping penalty at the offensive blueline, going for a poke-check but instead getting the skates. After his penalty expired, Frost blocked a shot in the D zone.
Rubtsov, apart from his two secondary assists, played a rock steady game. He was one of the Phantoms best penalty killers and held his own in the faceoff circle (an area the Flyers would like to see him improve). Fellow Russian forward Vorobyev was also effective on this night.
Ratcliffe had the nice takeaway that started the first goal sequence, but struggled a bit to create space as the game progressed. Pucks around his feet and plays where he has to pull his hands in gave him some problems and he had trouble a few times when stickhandling. He did get out on the PK.
The Phantoms return to action on Saturday night. They'll host the Hershey Bears.
Friday's Phantoms starting lineup:
10 Greg Carey - 9 Cal O'Reilly - 28 Joel Farabee
12 Andy Andreoff - 23 Morgan Frost - 16 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
19 Isaac Ratcliffe - 17 German Rubtsov - 15 Maksim Sushko
51 Kyle Criscuolo - 24 Misha Vorobyev - 29 Kurtis Gabriel
43 T.J. Brennan - 7 Phil Myers
27 Chris Bigras - 14 Mark Friedman
5 Tyler Wotherspoon - 44 Reece Willcox
34 Alex Lyon
[35 J-F Berube]
Scratches: 2 James de Haas (healthy), 8 Matthew Strome (healthy), 21 Gerry Fitzgerald (healthy), 39 Nate Prosser (veteran max), 38 David Kase (injury).
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