5 THINGS: Flyers @ Canucks

In the second game of a four game western road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (22-24-10) are in British Columbia on Saturday to take on Rick Tocchet's Vancouver Canucks (21-30-4). Game time at Rogers Arena is 10:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second and final meeting between the teams this season, and the lone game in Vancouver. Back on Oct. 15 -- the second game of the regular season for the Flyers -- the Flyers overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Canucks at the Wells Fargo Center by a 3-2 score. Tony DeAngelo (power play), Scott Laughton (shorthanded) and Travis Konecny scored for the Flyers. Carter Hart overcame a tough start to stop 28 of snots. Thatcher Demko denied 28 of 31 in a losing cause, while Kyle Burroughs and Conor Garland tallied goals for the Canucks.
The Flyers enter Saturday's game coming off one of their worst performances, all season: a 6-2 blowout loss at the hand the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
The lone positive from Thursday's debacle: a pair of third-period goals by Travis Konecny (25th and 26th of the season) ended a 13-game goalless/ eight-game pointless drought. Other than that, virtually nothing went right in a game that saw the Flyers limited to a single shot on goal in the first period, 10 shots through two periods and yield two player play goals, a shorthanded goal, a 6-on-5 (delayed penalty) goal, and a pair of 5-on-5 goals. Three of Seattle's goals came on plays where Flyers players -- Kevin Hayes, Kieffer Bellows and Konecny -- were stripped of the puck up and the Kraken scored in transition either on a 2-on-1 or a breakaway.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game.
1. How do the Flyers bounce back from the last two games?
It's not just the fact that the Flyers lost 4-3 (home) and 6-2 (road) decisions to Seattle on Sunday afternoon and Thursday night. It's the way the games were lost. In Sunday's game, the Flyers were guilty of a season-high 24 turnovers (10 giveaways plus 14 Seattle takeaways). Philly then had two straight off-days -- the first a complete off-day and then, after a flight to Seattle on Tuesday, a rest opportunity the remainder of the day -- before a practice session on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Thursday's performance was worse than Sunday's.
At least on Sunday, the Flyers got off to a quick start and tied the game at 2-2 in the second period. It was, ultimately, a two-goal outburst by the Kraken late in the second period and early in the third period that proved fatal to the Flyers. Philly made a push in the latter half of the third period, including a Patrick Brown shorthanded goal, and had chances to tie the game before falling short. Thursday's game, even with Konecny's two goals, lacked energy as well as lacking in mental sharpness and competitiveness.
This says it all: Ahead of the three-in-four in Vancouver, Calgary (Monday) and Edmonton (Tuesday), the Flyers had a scheduled off-day in Vancouver on Friday after making the short trek from Seattle to Vancouver. The schedule was changed, however, and Tortorella's team practiced in Vancouver on Friday. Frankly, the sooner the team got back to work, the better. Thursday's non-competitive performance was unacceptable by any standard.
Now it will be up to the Flyers to produce a vastly improved effort in Vancouver. For the most part this season, the Flyers have done a good job in at least keeping games competitive. What has happened over the past week was that each successive game after a well-played 2-1 (2-1) shootout win against Edmonton fell successively shorter of the performance standard in the previous game. The Flyers weren't bad in a grueling 2-1 overtime loss to Nashville but they were a little bit off in their execution. Last Sunday's loss to the Kraken was a step down from the previous day against the Predators but at least there were pockets of the game where Philly stepped up. Thursday's rematch in Seattle was poorly played across the board.
Bottom line: A strong response is needed in Vancouver.
2. Puck Management
After Sunday's home game against Seattle, DeAngelo pushed back at the notion that puck management issues -- despite the 10 Flyers giveaways and 14 Seattle takeaways -- had a snowball effect in sending the game downhill after the Flyers' quick start and 1-0 lead..
"I don't know about that. They had some good sticks, knocked a few pucks down, and turned it into transition," DeAngelo said.. "Got to try to avoid it because they can capitalize on that with their skill, and their speed but that's what they do. Couple of unlucky plays, but it happens."
After what happened in the rematch in Seattle, it was no longer plausible to chalk it up to unfortunate puck luck after the opponent got their sticks on the puck after the Flyers had possession.
"We didn't have it, from the start," Scott Laughton said after Thursday's game. "We weren't connected. I thought we didn't make very many passes. No (offensive) zone time. Didn't take care of the puck. They made us pay. I feel bad for Hartsy and Erssy back there. A lot of chances, Grade A chances."
The Canucks are a team that has had severe issues keeping the puck out of their net. Only the Anaheim Ducks (4.16 GAA) have allowed more goals per game this season than the Canucks. However, if you gift scoring opportunities to the Canucks, it's a team that is capable of burning an opponent. Vancouver ranks in the top 12 of the NHL offensively, scoring at a 3.31 goals-per-game pace.
If the Flyers continue to cough up odd-man rushes or fail to defend in layers in their own zone, it'll be a long night in Vancouver. On the flip side, if Philly plays the right way, the Canucks are a team that finds ways to self-destruct.
3. Getting back on track offensively
The Flyers had roughly a month-long stretch in December to January, where they started putting the puck in the net with regularity: In the 15 games played between Dec. 17 and Jan. 19, the Flyers scored at 3.60 goals per game rate: tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 7th in the NHL in that span. Broken down further, the Flyers scored three or more goals in 13 of the 15 games in that span, and four or more in nine of them.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, that 15-game stretch was like an oasis in the desert. Pre-Dec 17, the Flyers average a meager 2.37 goals per game (30th in the NHL). Since Jan. 19, they've averaged 2.09 goals per game (31st).
To pull the offense back up toward respectability, there's a host of players who need to start contributing regularly again: Konecny, Joel Farabee, Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, James van Riemsdyk, the blueline, etc.
Over the last 11 games, Kevin Hayes has produced seven points (4g, 3a). So have Noah Cates (3g, 4a) and defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (1g, 6a). Tippett (2g, 4a) and Ivan Provorov (1g, 5a) each have six points. Frost (1g, 4a) and DeAngelo (2g, 3a) have both produced five points. Laughton has four points (1g, 3a). James van Riemsdyk (2g, 1a) and Konecny (2g, 1a) each have three points. Wade Alllison (1g, 1a) has just two points, along with Cam York (0g, 2a). Farabee (0g, 1a) has but a single point as does Travis Sanheim (0g, 1a).
In other words, one can't point the finger at one player, one line or a segment of the lineup that's not pulling its weight in "the scoring by committee" Tortorella says the team needs. It's been a collective drop.
The Flyers are to revive their scoring, Vancouver is a likely opponent against whom to do it. But it starts with a process ahead of a result.
4. Flyers line play
The Flyers started Thursday's game with different line combinations than the ones they featured in the second half of the Nashville game and the first game against Seattle. By the second period on Thursday -- following the disastrous first period --
all four lines looked different.
The Flyers' starting lineup combinations for Saturday remain to be seen.
Frost took a puck off his left hand in the third period of Saturday's game. He was in considerable pain as he returned to the bench. However, he finished the game.
Thursday's starting combinations were as follows:
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 62 Olle Lycksell
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
From the second period onward, the main forward combinations were
Deslauriers - Cates- Tippett
Farabee- Laughton - Bellows
van Riemsdyk - Brown - Konecny
Hayes - Frost - Allison
By the time the puck drops for the opening faceoff in Vancouver, the combinations may very well look different again from those that started or finished together in Seattle.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks are wrapping up a three-game homestand. On Wednesday evening, Vancouver suffered a 6-4 loss to the New York Rangers at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks trailed 3-2 after the first period but got goals from Curtis Lazar (3rd) and J.T. Miller (PPG, 19th). Two tallies by Artemi Panarin and one by Mika Zibanejad sent New York to the locker room with the lead. By the end of the second period, the score was 5-3 in the Rangers' favor. Garland (11th) sandwiched goals around scores by New York's Chris Kreider and K'Andre Miller. In the third period, Andrei Kuzmenko cut the deficit to 5-4 in the third period before a Zibanejad empty netter sealed the final two-goal margin.
Since Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau as head coach on Jan. 22, the Canucks have gone 3-5-1. The team has lost its last three games, dropping a home-and-home set against the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 (road) and 6-1 (home) before Wednesday's loss to the Rangers.
Curtis Lazar is day-to-day with a lower body injury sustained in the Rangers game. Verna defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Ekman-Larsson has been ruled out for the game against the Flyers while Lazar's status is questionable.
Demko is on IR with a lower-body injury. Tanner Pearson (hand surgery) is on LTIR as is Ilya Mikheyev (knee).
96 Andrei Kuzmenko - 40 Elias Pettersson - 72 Anthony Beauvillier
34 Phil Di Giuseppe - 9 J.T. Miller - 6 Brock Boeser
92 Vasily Podkolzin - 18 Jack Studnicka - 20 Curtis Lazar (?)
81 Dakota Joshua - Nils Åman - 15 Sheldon Dries
43 Quinn Hughes - 74 Ethan Bear
61 Riley Stillman - 57 Tyler Myers
44 Kyle Burroughs - 2 Luke Schenn
60 Collin Delia
31 Arturs Silovs