Game 1: Flyers vs. Canucks
After a highly disappointing 2020-21 season and an offseason filled with roster changes, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (0-0-0) will begin their 82-game regular season on Friday night when they host Travis Green's Vancouver Canucks (0-0-1) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the interconference clubs. The season series will be completed by the end of this month when the Flyers pay a visit to Rogers Arena on Oct. 28.
The last time the Flyers opened a regular season at home against Vancouver was the 2000-01 season. On Oct. 5, 2000, the Sedin Twins made their NHL debuts but it was debuting 19-year-old Flyers rookie Justin Williams who stole the show in a 6-3 Flyers victory. Williams notched a first period goal and two assists in the second period to earn first-star honors.
Flyers Outlook
Friday's game starts a four-game homestand. It will mark the Flyers debuts of Ryan Ellis, Keith Yandle, Cam Atkinson, Nick Seeler and Max Willman (a 26-year-old who will be playing in his first NHL regular season game).
Rasmus Ristolainen, day to day with an upper body injury sustained in the preseason finale last Friday in Washington, will not be available for the opener. Kevin Hayes (abdominal muscle surgery) will open the season on long-term injured reserve and will miss the first 10 games of the campaign. Rookie power forward Wade Allison is out indefinitely with a right high ankle sprain suffered in the second Rookie Game before NHL training camp. Fellow NHL-hopeful rookie Tanner Laczynski is likely to miss the entire season after undergoing hip surgery to repair a torn labrum.
Carter Hart will get the start in goal in the opener. New arrival Martin Jones will serve as the backup.
Canucks Outlook
On Wednesday. the Canucks opened their regular season with a 3-2 road loss via shootout to the Edmonton Oilers. Trailing 2-0 entering the third period, Vancouver rallied for goals by Oliver Ekman-Larsson (power play) and, with 2:49 left on the clock, by Quinn Hughes to force overtime. Thatcher Demko stopped 32 of 34 shots over the 65 minutes of play.
The shootout went five rounds, before Edmonton prevailed (2-1), Bo Horvat, in round four, had the only successful attempt for the Canucks. His tally prolonged the skills competition, before the Oilers' Kyle Turris scored in the top of round five and Tanner Pearson wristed a shot wide of the net.
Brock Boeser (23 goals, 49 points last season in 56 games) remained sidelined for the opener as he was during the preseason. However, he is with the team in Philadelphia and is expected to play at some point during their season-opening road trip. He participated in the morning skate in Edmonton but wasn't quite ready to play yet.
Further Reading
For more pregame storylines, projected lineups and more from tonight's game,
see the new gameday "Five Things on the Flyers' official website.
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UPDATE 1:00 PM
OFFICIAL LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 James van Riemsdyk
71 Max Willman - 42 Nate Thompson -62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 94 Ryan Ellis
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
Canucks
9 J.T. Miller - 40 Elias Pettersson - 92 Vasily Podkolzin
70 Tanner Pearson - 53 Bo Horvat - 8 Conor Garland
15 Matthew Highmore - 18 Jason Dickinson - 21 Nils Höglander
73 Justin Dowling - 91 Juho Lammikko - 39 Alex Chiasson
23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson - 57 Tyler Myers
43 Quinn Hughes - 5 Tucker Poolman
3 Jack Rathbone - 44 Kyle Burroughs
35 Thatcher Demko
[41 Jaroslav Halak]
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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