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Vancouver Canucks face special-teams test against Philadelphia Flyers |
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Thursday January 12 - Vancouver Canucks at Philadelphia Flyers - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 43 GP, 20-19-4, 44 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Philadelphia Flyers: 43 GP, 21-16-6, 48 pts, fifth in Metropolitan Division
It's rare to see the Vancouver Canucks play one isolated game in the Eastern Time Zone, but that's what's happening tonight. After going to Calgary last weekend, then coming home for a couple of days, then heading to Nashville, the Canucks are in Philadelphia to take on the Flyers in their first meeting of the year.
Philadelphia continues to make progress under second-year coach Dave Hakstol. With 96 points last season, they snuck into the second wild-card spot in the East, then were eliminated in the first round by the Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington Capitals.
Right now, they're sitting in that second wild-card spot again—two points ahead of Florida, three up on Carolina and four ahead of Toronto in an Eastern Conference race that's just as tight as what we're seeing out here in the West. But the team has struggled recently—since its 10-game winning streak ended in mid-December, Philadelphia is 2-6-3. Like the Canucks, the Flyers have a loss and an overtime loss in their last two games.
Last year, the Flyers were somewhat weak offensively as their star sniper Jakub Voracek managed just 11 goals and 55 points. They leaned on outstanding goaltending from Steve Mason and a strong 23-10-8 record on home ice to propel themselves into the postseason.
This year, Voracek's back on track; he's currently tied for 11th in league scoring with 39 points and his 13 goals have already surpassed his entire output from last year. That, along with a strong power play, has helped the Flyers climb to 10th overall offensively, scoring 2.79 goals per game.
After scoring just once in each of their last two games, the Canucks have slipped back down to 25th place, at 2.37 goals per game.
The failure of the 4-on-3 overtime power play in Nashville has put the spotlight back on Vancouver's inability to generate offense with the man advantage. Power-play goals were crucial in the victories over Los Angeles and Anaheim that kicked off that recent winning streak but in their last six games, Vancouver has gone 2-for-17, a conversion rate of 11.7 percent that's even lower than their full-season rate of 13.7 percent—which ranks them 27th in the league.
The Flyers, by the way, are ninth, at 21.9 percent.
Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun is on the road with the team. He reports that the Canucks did practice the power play on Wednesday, but didn't make any significant changes.
Even MacIntyre is frustrated enough to want to see what happens if big Nikita Tryamkin gets deployed as a net-front presence, Chara-style, or if Bo Horvat is given a bigger role. Or if—gasp—the Sedins are split up. But other than Alex Edler rejoining the twins on PP1, everything else appears to be status quo.
It's interesting to consider that Philadelphia's coach, Hakstol, was Troy Stecher's bench boss during his first three years of college hockey at North Dakota. That further cements the parallels between Stecher and the Flyers' young pointman, Shayne Gostisbehere, and perhaps helps explain Stecher's aggressive mentality with the man advantage.
It didn't work out for him against the Predators on Tuesday but as some of you suggested in the comments yesterday, it sounds like the rookie is ready to learn from the experience and might handle a similar situation a bit differently next time.
Ben Kuzma unearthed the other intriguing storyline that'll unfold tonight between two teams that only see each other a couple of times a year—tonight will be the first time that Bo Horvat faces his cousin Travis Konecny at the NHL level.
The resemblance is striking, isn't it?
Konecny is smaller than Horvat—the 19-year-old right winger is listed at 5'10" and 175 pounds. But the 24th-overall pick from 2015 is quietly putting together an impressive rookie season in a year that's full of first-year sensations. Through 42 games, Konecny has six goals and 20 points, which puts him on pace for a 40-point year. He's also seeing significant power-play time with the Flyers.
Look for Konecny playing the right side tonight with Claude Giroux and Michael Raffl.
He's not the only rookie to watch, either. Ivan Provorov, also 19, is leading the entire Flyers team in ice time, averaging 21:18 a game, and is playing on the penalty kill and the power-play as well as at 5-on-5. With 3-16-19 in 43 games, Provorov is second in rookie scoring by defensemen behind Zach Werenski of Columbus.
Expect to see Ryan Miller facing off against Steve Mason between the pipes tonight. After a stellar campaign last year, Mason's performance this year is right around his career average—14-14-6 with a 2.80 GAA and .903 save percentage. Miller's now at 12-10-2, 2.59 and .915 for the year—also almost dead-on his career averages.
Though the Canucks have squeaked out just one point from their lat two games, it's expected that Willie Desjardins will stick with his same lineup. Anton Rodin and Reid Boucher will remain scratched up front, and Andrey Pedan will be the extra man on the blue line.
Early start: 4:00. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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