The Vancouver Canucks and Philadelphia Flyers are trending in opposite directions heading into Monday’s matchup in Philadelphia.
The Canucks are aiming to complete a perfect 5-0-0 road trip, while the Flyers are seeking to avoid a sixth loss in seven games.
Two days after trading star defenseman Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, Vancouver embarked on an East Coast road trip.
The Canucks allowed a total of two goals in winning the first three games against the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and New York Rangers. Saturday’s game in Boston had a different flavor, however, although Vancouver prevailed over the Bruins 5-4 in a shootout.
Liam Ohgren scored in regulation for the Canucks and was the only player to score during a seven-round shootout. Linus Karlsson added two goals for Vancouver, while Kevin Lankinen made 38 saves in addition to seven stops in the shootout.
Lankinen has allowed a total of six shootout goals on 51 attempts in his career.
“That’s a crazy number,” Canucks coach Adam Foote said. “He’s disciplined. He’s in control on each shot. It’s the same every time. He knows what’s going on and he’s a true pro and it’s nice to see him have success.”
Meanwhile, Ohgren — one of three players who came to Vancouver in the Hughes trade — has scored twice in four games with the Canucks.
“He’s calm for his age,” Foote said of the 21-year-old Ohgren. “He’s going to learn the game. We’ve given him information as far as how to defend, how to come into our end, and there’s stuff you see on the offense and most of these young guys have that, but it’s how you play without the puck and he’s done a good job with that.”
The Flyers have earned a point in six of their last seven games, although they are just 2-1-4 in that stretch. They squandered a two-goal lead in New York on Saturday, falling 5-4 to the Rangers in a shootout.
Philadelphia scored twice on the power play after going 0-for-16 in its previous seven games. However, the team had two man advantages in overtime and failed on both, leading to the shootout defeat.
“Too slow with the 4-on-3 (in overtime),” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought we were moving the puck; we just have got to learn how to handle pressure. It’s something we knew at the beginning of the year we’d have to learn how to do. Take the point when we thought we should have had two.”
One bright spot for the Flyers was the play of Denver Barkey, who registered two assists in his NHL debut.
“The way he played, the way he competes, yeah, I’m going to fight for him,” Tocchet said of the 20-year-old.
Travis Sanheim added a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, which is in the midst of a 10-game stretch where it’ll play nine games on the road. This, of course, is the lone home game during that span, while the Flyers will visit Vancouver on Dec. 30 on its upcoming road trip.
The Canucks won last year’s trip to Philadelphia, 3-0, as Lankinen made 26 saves for his fourth career shutout.
–Field Level Media
