PHILADELPHIA -- One can look at the Philadelphia Flyers and their 1-6-0 record and come to the conclusion that they're playing poorly and the record reflects that. Someone else can look at the Flyers, see that they blew a third-period lead and lost to the Vancouver Canucks two nights ago and think they are primed for a breakout.

Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma falls into the latter category. He isn't preparing to face a struggling team Thursday at Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m. ET, NHLN-US); he's expecting to face a dangerous one that played better in a loss Saturday at the Detroit Red Wings and nearly beat the Canucks on Tuesday.

"I don't look at the Flyers' record as an indication of the quality of opponent or what we're going to see [Thursday] at all," Bylsma said. "They do have some injuries, but they have key players in, good players in, a special teams that is good and dangerous with what they bring. That's what we expect from them. Especially early on in the season, when you get off to a 1-3, 1-4, whatever it is, the limelight is on you but I still think they're a very good team and that's what we're focused on, not what their record is."

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers are 1-6-0, and while captain Claude Giroux knows his team hasn't been great, he can't quite figure out why they haven't been able to win more games since Craig Berube took over as coach 10 days ago.

Giroux said it reminds him of another time when the Flyers were struggling for results yet confident in how they were playing.

"What's going on right now makes me think of when we played Boston in the [2010 Stanley Cup] Playoffs," Giroux said, referring to the series against the Bruins three years ago. "We were down 3-0 [in the series] but we were talking to ourselves and were like, 'How the [heck] are we down 3-0? We should be up 3-0.' We just stayed with it and came back to win the series.

"You know, it's a long season. If you think about it we still have 75 games left. That's a lot of games."

PHILADELPHIA -- Since he got the job in June, Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella has been talking about establishing an identity, about making the team tougher to play against.

Through six games it has shown up in spurts, Henrik Sedin told NHL.com, but Tortorella and the Canucks' captain think the team really can hone in on establishing that identity and staying consistent with it on its seven-game road trip, which begins Tuesday against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

"Yeah, I think it's an important couple of weeks for me to understand them because you are with one another, doing things together as a team, both on and off the ice in this length of a trip," Tortorella said. "It's for both ways, me to understand them and them to understand me, and really to confine yourselves with one another to build this. I think it's a good time."

PHILADELPHIA -- The ugly cycle for the Philadelphia Flyers usually starts with the minor stick infraction like a hooking, holding or high stick. Now they're shorthanded and, well, scoring that way obviously is quite difficult.

So what's the message from coach Craig Berube as the Flyers get ready to play the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center?

"Stop taking stupid penalties," Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said.

That might sound strange coming from Berube, who had more than 3,100 penalty minutes in his playing career, but as Simmonds pointed out, Berube's penalty minutes came from a lot of fights and coincidental roughing minors. They were not stick infractions like the ones that have plagued the Flyers this season.

Philadelphia has been shorthanded a League-high 33 times because it also leads the League with 39 minor penalties. Not surprisingly, the Flyers are 29th in the NHL, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres, in goals per game (1.3).

NEWARK, N.J. -- New York Islanders coach Jack Capuano said he was asking for just one thing from rookies Brock Nelson and Matt Donovan on Friday at Prudential Center.

"To play like experienced guys," Capuano said Friday morning in advance of the Islanders' season opener against the New Jersey Devils.

Sounds like a lot, especially for a pair of rookies who between them have a total of four games of NHL experience and just one in nearly 18 months. Donovan played three games late in the 2011-12 season and Nelson made his NHL debut in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals last season against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"I know that those guys are going to make mistakes, and it's a game of mistakes, but I want them to play confident, I want them to play poised," Capuano said. "They're here to help us win hockey games. If we didn't think it was that situation then they wouldn't be here."

Donovan will open the game on the third defense pair with Brian Strait, while Nelson will be the third-line left wing, skating with Peter Regin and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

CHICAGO ­-- Washington Capitals rookie Connor Carrick scrounged up 10 tickets for friends and family to see him make his NHL debut against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN) at United Center.

"I don't think it's going to be enough," the 19-year-old defenseman said.

It probably won't be because Carrick is from nearby Orland Park, Ill., which is approximately a 30- to 35-minute drive from downtown Chicago. He used to attend games at United Center when he was a kid, and now he gets to play his first NHL game in the same building.

Capitals rookie center Michael Latta, 22, is doing the same thing, and 19-year-old right wing Tom Wilson is making his regular-season debut after appearing in three games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring.

Carrick is playing ahead of Steve Oleksy, while Latta is in instead of Jay Beagle. Wilson is playing because the Capitals cleared a roster spot Sunday by trading Mathieu Perreault to the Anaheim Ducks.

CHICAGO -- Marian Hossa and Michal Handzus will join Patrick Sharp on the Chicago Blackhawks' second line Tuesday night despite not playing a game in the preseason. The Blackhawks open the season against the Washington Capitals at United Center (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN).

"Hopefully we don't slow Sharpie down," Hossa told NHL.com.

Hossa had an undisclosed upper-body injury that prevented him from playing in any of Chicago's six preseason games. The injury is believed to be related to his back injury that he sustained in the Stanley Cup Final last season.

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Pittsburgh Penguins won't know how long goaltender Tomas Vokoun will be out until he visits with his doctors early next week, general manager Ray Shero said Friday. Vokoun had emergency surgery last week because of a blood clot in his pelvis.

Vokoun's agent, Allan Walsh, wrote on his Twitter account Friday that the goalie is expected to start light workouts next week.

"I met with Tomas [Thursday] and we'll have more of an update probably next week," Shero told NHL.com. "Fortunately for him he dodged a bullet. Luckily he was at the rink and we got him to the hospital so the procedures went well. We'll just have to wait and see what the next steps are going to be and go from there. Our concerns are just with him and his health, but it was good to see him [Thursday]."

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Ryan Callahan's rehab from offseason shoulder surgery is going as planned, but that means the New York Rangers captain likely will have to start the regular season on injured reserve.

Callahan and Rangers forward Carl Hagelin each had shoulder surgery in late May after the Rangers were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hagelin also is not expected to be ready for the start of the regular season.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- New York Rangers center Derick Brassard and assistant coach Scott Arniel have a rocky and controversial past, but they both insist any animosity that may have been lingering from their time together in Columbus was buried in early July, when Arniel was hired and Brassard called to talk to him.

“It's in the past and I'm looking in front of me," Brassard said. "I talked to Arnie when he got hired. I called him. No hard feelings."

Brassard and Arniel got embroiled in controversy early in the 2011-12 season when Arniel was the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Brassard was their struggling center. Arniel made Brassard a healthy scratch seven times in 10 games from mid-November to early December both because Brassard was struggling and the Blue Jackets decided to test out their center depth.