GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 25: Canucks @ Philadelphia

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

4:00PM PST WELLS FARGO CENTER, PHILADELPHIA, PA

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: BROAD STREET HOCKEY

Since getting their lunch fed to them by the Dallas Stars last week, the Canucks have responded by kicking the crap outta the Nashville Predators with their power play and following it up with a hard fought and well deserved shootout win over the league leading Washington Capitals.

Tonight it’s a matchup against a team that’s a pretty decent comparable, the Philadelphia Flyers. We’ve already gotten a look at Alain Vigneault’s bunch in a 3-2 shootout win at Rogers Arena. The Flyers have already been in 7 shootouts this month, and their last 3 at home were all losses in the trick shot competition. Despite that, the Flyers like the Canucks, exceeding everyone’s preseason expectations, and this one should be another close checking, hard fought battle.

LINEUPS:

Courtesy our pals over at Broad Street Hockey, here’s what we’ll see from the Flyers tonight:

Flyers Projected Lineup

Forwards

Lindblom — Couturier — Voracek

Giroux — Frost — Konecny

Laughton — Hayes — Farabee

JVR — Raffl — Pitlick

Defense

Provorov — Niskanen

Sanheim — Braun

Hagg — Myers

Goalie

Hart

(Elliott)

Canucks projected lineup

Tanner Pearson -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

J.T. Miller -- Bo Horvat -- Zack MacEwen

Josh Leivo -- Adam Gaudette -- Jake Virtanen

Tim Schaller -- Jay Beagle -- Tyler Graovac

Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher

Quinn Hughes -- Christopher Tanev

Jordie Benn -- Tyler Myers

Jacob Markstrom

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Sven Baertschi, Loui Eriksson, Oscar Fantenberg

Injured: Brandon Sutter (groin strain), Tyler Motte (foot), Antoine Roussel (knee), Micheal Ferland (concussion protocol)

Yes, that is the same lineup as we saw Saturday in DC, and yes, that means Alex Edler is good to go for tonight. There’s also a big injury update this morning:

If all goes well **knocks on formica** the Canucks could be completely healthy heading into December, which has happened exactly never times in the last decade.

And if you can, swing over to BSH, where they had me on their podcast to preview tonight’s game>

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

When it comes to bands from Pennsylvania, the conversation should always start with BELIEVER. A band far ahead of their time, rejected by the Christian metal scene they came from for playing shows with secular bands and not given a chance by many in the mainstream scene for their beliefs, this was a band that was musically and conceptually light years ahead of the competition. Their 2nd album ‘Sanity Obscure’ remains an under-appreciated classic in the genre, full of razor-sharp riffs, a breakneck pace and a vicious vocal delivery that allowed them to go toe to toe with any of thrash metal’s heavyweights. I have three tracks off that album today: the first was a song that called for people to take a stand against the destruction of the environment (not a common stance in 1990, and certainly not one associated with Christianity these days). The second contains some of the best damn metal riffs from the 90’s. And we’ll wrap it up with operatic/thrash hybrid that was once again ahead of its time.