Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers' (4-10-5) have no time to dwell on Sunday's 4-3 overtime defeat in Calgary. The team is right back in action on Tuesday as they visit Manny Malhotra's Vancouver Canucks (3-15-1).
This is the first of two meetings this season between the interconference clubs. They rematch in Philadelphia on the afternoon of November 27.
Game time at Rogers Arena is 9:30 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP.
On Sunday, the Flyers held three separate one-goal leads against the Calgary Flames. Philly was unable to protect or build on any of them. Ultimately, Calgary skated off with a 4-3 overtime decision. Philadelphia received two goals from the fourth line -- Denver Barkey (2nd) and Noel Acciari (3rd) -- plus a power play tally from Owen Tippett (2nd).
Vancouver has lost five games in a row in regulation among nine defeats (1-9-0) in their last 10 games. On Saturday, the Canucks battled the red-hot Edmonton Oilers well enough to take a 1-1 tie into the third period. Two goals by Leon Draisaitl ultimately paced the Oilers to a 4-2 win.
In a losing cause, Max Sasson (5th) and Brock Boeser (7th) tallied one goal apiece for Vancouver. Elias Petttersson chipped in his 15th assist of the season. Leevi Merilainen stopped 26 of 29 shots to keep his team in a game where the Canucks got outshot, 30-22.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday.
1. Rolling the Lines
The Flyers desperately need wins any way they can get them. They can't worry about the rest of their schedule on one of the craziest travel weeks of the season: five games in eight nights across three different time zones including two games against the Oilers.
Nevertheless, energy management and personnel usage has a cumulative effect. Regardless of the opponent, the Flyers need to roll their four lines/ three pairs as much as possible.
Likewise, puck management and discipline matter just as much in this game as these factors would apply against an opponent with a better record. The Flyers are not in position to "get away" with loose or undisciplined play in any zone or unproductive periods.
2. Special Teams
The power play remained a recent bright spot for the Flyers in the Calgary game. However, Philly coughed up a killer shorthanded goal to ex-Flyer Joel Farabee in the third period.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' penalty kill has hit a fairly rough spell the last couple weeks. Vancouver (20.7 percent power play efficiency) is respectable on the man advantage with the likes of Pettersson and Boeser.
Philly's power play enters the game ranked 27th in the NHL (17.4 percent) but is connecting at 25 percent success over the past 10 games. The Vancouver PK comes in at a porous 63.5 percent success rate overall -- worst in the NHL -- and 66.7 percent over their last nine matches.
This is an area the Flyer can and must exploit.
3. Travis Konecny
The Flyers scoring leader in each of the last five seasons, Konecny missed 10 games in October due to injury. He notched a goal and an assist in his first match back in the lineup but did not record a point in his last three matches.
Konecny (1g, 5 points overall in nine games) needs to be an offensive and emotional sparkplug once again for his team. He also needs to limit low percentage plays. He had some good moments on Sunday among his 23 shifts (six shot attempts with three on net).
4. Woll goes for second win
Look for Joseph Woll (1-6-2, 3.12 GAA, .899 save percentage) to get the start in net in the second half of the back-to-back set. He's generally played well enough to have more than one win in nine outings to his credit. Sparse goal support and untimely breakdowns around him have been a bigger issue.
