Game 34 Preview: Flyers @ Canucks
Playing their first game after the Christmas break, the Philadelphia Flyers (18-11-4) are in British Columbia on Thursday night to take on the Vancouver Canucks (23-9-3). Game time at Rogers Arena is 10 p.m. ET.
The Flyers practiced at Rogers Arena on Wednesday afternoon. Per Kevin Kurz of the Athletic, Samuel Ersson was in the net the Flyers will defend in the first and third periods against the Canucks; a likely (but not infallible) indication that Ersson will start on Thursday in Vancouver and Carter Hart will start in Seattle on Friday.
At Wednesday's practice, the Flyers used the same line combinations they primarily featured in the last game before the break including Owen Tippett on the top line with Sean Couturier and Tyson Foerster on Morgan Frost's line. The flyers will hold a morning skate on Thursday.
The Flyers have collected at least one point in 10 of their last 11 games (7-1-3). The Canucks, who beat San Jose in the final game before the break, have points in nine of the last 10 games (7-1-2).
Projected lines below are based off Wednesday's respective practices and are subject to change. Additionally, the Flyers recalled center Rhett Gardner from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the team's four-game road trip. Gardner will most likely not dress for any games during the trip unless there is an injury or sickness in the lineup.
For an in-depth preview of tonight's game, including team trends, matchups, special teams comparisons and more, see today's
5 Things on the Flyers' official website.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (will be updated)
FLYERS
74 Owen Tippett- 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 10 Bobby Brink
71 Tyson Foerster - 48 Morgan Frost - 89 Cam Atkinson
44 Nic Deslauriers - 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula or 18 Marc Staal - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
33 Samuel Ersson
79 Carter Hart
Scratches: One of 18 Marc Staal of 5 Egor Zamula, 49 Rhett Gardner.
CANUCKS
65 Ilya Mikheyev - 40 Elias Pettersson - 96 Andrei Kuzmenko
21 Nils Höglander - 9 J.T. Miller - 6 Brock Boeser
81 Dakota Joshua - 53 Teddy Blueger - 8 Conor Garland
88 Nils Åman - 24 Pius Suter - 18 Sam Lafferty
43 Quinn Hughes - 17 Filip Hronek
91 Nikita Zadorov - 57 Tyler Myers
82 Ian Cole - 47 Noah Juulsen
35 Thatcher Demko
29 Casey DeSmith
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Phantoms Hold Off Utica, 5-4
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (13-11-5) prevailed over the Utica Comets (10-12-3) at the PPL Center on Wednesday evening. The first 40 minutes saw the Phantoms take a 3-1 lead to the first intermission before Utica tallied three goals to two by the Phantoms in the middle stanza. The third period was scoreless.
Veteran Phantoms captain Garrett Wilson boosted his team with a goal (6th) and an assist. Lehigh Valley also received goals from Wade Allison (7th), rookie winger Alexis Gendron (5th goal, 1st career AHL assist), Jacob Gaucher (1st), and Cooper Marody (8th goal, 19th assist). Gendron was selected 1st Star of the Game.
Felix Sandström stopped 26 of 30 shots to earn the win in goal. Utica's Jeremy Brodeur stopped 20 of 22 shots in relief of starter Isaac Poulter, who only stopped one of four shots before being removed at 4:57 of the first period.
The Phantoms are idle on Thursday and Friday nights. On Saturday, they'll host the first-place Hershey Bears (25-6-0) at the PPL Center. On New Year's Eve, the Charlotte Checkers (14-10-3) return to Allentown for another visit.
Phantoms lineup from Wednesday's game:
28 Olle Lycksell - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 19 Wade Allison
17 Garett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 20 Cooper Marody
16 J.R. Avon - 24 Adam Brooks - 27 Samu Tuomaala
29 Alexis Gendron - 56 Jacon Gaucher - 15 Jordy Bellerive
6 Emil Andrae - 7 Louie Belpedio
98 Victor Mete - 12 Ronnie Attard
37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
32 Felix Sandström
[40 Cal Petersen]
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World Junior Championship Update: Day 3
Cutter Gauthier and the rest of Team USA will take on Switzerland on Thursday in the second game of their preliminary round schedule at the 2023-24 IIHF Under-20 World Championship in Göteborg, Sweden. Gauthier had one assist in a 4-1 win over Norway on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Oliver Bonk chipped in a power play assist and was a game-high plus-five in a 10-0 rout against overmatched Latvia. Bonk skated 16:05 of ice time across 23 shifts.
In Wednesday's other game that involved a Flyers-affiliated prospect, Alex Ciernik did not record a point or a shot on goal in a 3-0 shutout win over Switzerland. Ciernik, who skated 15:27 across 17 shifts, missed the net on two attempts and was blocked on another. He's still looking for his first point of the tournament but came close to a goal in Slovakia's opening 6-2 win over Czechia.
Canada and Slovakia are idle on Thursday.
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