GAME DAY PREVIEW: Game 2- Canucks @ Philadelphia Flyers

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (0-1-0) vs PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (1-0-0)

WELLS FARGO CENTER, PHILADELPHIA, PA

1:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: BROAD STREET HOCKEY

One for Eight. You can talk about Connor McDavid’s hat trick all you want, but the Canucks’ inability to make an undisciplined Edmonton Oilers team pay was the reason Vancouver coughed up a three goal lead and two points on Wednesday night. They’ve been working on the power play to get back to what should be a fairly lethal set up, especially given how good they were last season.

One of the reasons the Canucks came up short last season, missing the playoffs by a mere handful of points was far too many losses to bad teams. And that brings us to Philadelphia, who along with Buffalo and New Jersey, were bloody awful last season, and still managed to beat the Canucks. These are the games that, if you’re truly a playoff team, you simply do not give away points.

And the Flyers are not good. Just ask their head coach, the guy who wouldn’t even live in the country when he coached here, John Tortorella.

Seriously, how this guy continues to get people to pay him to coach in this league is mystifying. He’s definitely not able to handle the way the game is being played now, and he is a genuinely terrible human being on top of it all. I have a feeling it won’t be long before Flyers fans are pining for Alain Vigneault after Torts does his ‘tough love’ bullshit and breaks the will of another player.

The Canucks may be getting another body back soon, as Ilya Mikheyev participated in his first full contact practice since being injured in the preseason. The Flyers meanwhile, are still pretty banged up themselves.

Despite the loss on Wednesday there were some positives that we can look at. Elias Pettersson looks absolutely dialed in and ready to dominate this season. Andrei Kuzmenko had a pretty memorable first NHL game, and J.T. Miller appears to be ready to pick up where he left off last season. If the Canucks can hold tight defensively, capitalize on the power plays that will inevitably come, and get a solid afternoon out of Thatcher Demko, this should be career win #600 for Bruce Boudreau.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, this prediction, found on an ancient papyrus in ancient Egypt, foretells what we should see in this afternoon’s game:

Canucks projected lineup

Tanner Pearson — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Nils Hoglander

Vasily Podkolzin — Bo Horvat — Conor Garland

Dakota Joshua — Nils Aman — Curtis Lazar

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tucker Poolman

Riley Stillman — Kyle Burroughs

Thatcher Demko

Spencer Martin

Scratched: Sheldon Dries, Jack Rathbone

Injured: Travis Dermott (concussion), Tyler Myers (undisclosed), Ilya Mikheyev (undisclosed)

Flyers projected lineup

Scott Laughton — Kevin Hayes — Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk — Morgan Frost — Tanner Laczynski

Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Wade Allison

Nicolas Deslauriers — Jackson Cates — Hayden Hodgson

Ivan Provorov — Tony DeAngelo

Travis Sanheim — Justin Braun

Egor Zamula — Nick Seeler

Carter Hart

Samuel Ersson

Scratched: None

Injured: Sean Couturier (upper body), Owen Tippett (upper body), Rasmus Ristolainen (undisclosed), Felix Sandstrom (groin), Cam Atkinson (upper body)

Taking a look at this lineup for the Flyers, it becomes clearer why Torts said what he did (well, besides the fact that he’s an asshole...), and again I cannot stress this enough: this is a game that the Canucks should win, and there’s no excuse for them to not walk outta here with two points today.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

From their second album, released in 1987, this is CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER with the title track off ‘Money Talks’.

Enjoy the game, everyone. Go Canucks Go!