Philadelphia Flyers (19-11-7, 45 pts) at Vancouver Canucks (16-19-3, 35 pts)
Venue: Rogers Arena
Date: Tuesday, December 30
Time: 10:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm PT

TV: ESPN+ / NBC Sports Philadelphia / Sportsnet
Radio: 
Philadelphia Flyers – 97.5 The Fanatic
Vancouver Canucks – Sportsnet 650 AM

DraftKings Sportsbook Betting Lines:
Calgary Flames -1.5 ML -130
Vancouver Canucks +1.5 ML +110
O/U 5.5

Philadelphia Flyers News and Notes:

The Philadelphia Flyers have been the definition of sneaky this season, making no huge splashes in the offseason and no big changes to the lineup while simultaneously snatching the third place spot in the Metropolitan Division, not too far behind the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders. Although the Flyers suffered a tough 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken, besides that game, the Flyers have been able to snatch a point in eight of their last nine games, including a 5-2 victory over the very team they face tonight, the Vancouver Canucks. However, four of those eight games have been overtime losses, showcasing a lack of peak performance in the clutch by Philadelphia.

Vancouver Canucks News and Notes:

After what looked like a sure-fire tank-producing trade when the Vancouver Canucks traded their superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for three young pieces in Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, and Zeev Buium, you’d think the Canucks would be torrentially in the loss column. However, the Canucks, as of late, have been doing the complete opposite. Vancouver has not only won five of their last seven games, but they have been coming out on top in close scores, unusual for them this season, and they’ve been creeping up the Western Conference standings, going as high as four plus spots. Although their two losses have come in their last three games, slowing their momentum down a tad, the Canucks just picked up a massive 3-2 shootout win last night against their division rival, the Seattle Kraken.

Philadelphia Flyers Projected Lines:

Zegras-Dvorak-Konecny
Barkey-Couturier-Tippett
Michkov-Cates-Brink
Grundstrom-Abols-Grebenkin

York-Sanheim
Seeler-Ristolainen
Andrae-Drysdale

Vladar
Ersson

Vancouver Canucks Projected Lines:

Kane-E. Pettersson-Boeser
Ohgren-Rossi-Garland
O’Connor-Raty-Sherwood
Hoglander-Sasson-Karlsson

M.Pettersson-Hronek
Buium-Myers
E. N. Pettersson-Willander

Demko
Lankinen

Players to Watch:

Philadelphia Flyers:

As I mentioned before, there were no massive changes for the Philadelphia Flyers in the offseason, but one decent addition the Flyers made has been crushing it on the top line, in the form of Trevor Zegras. Zegras has been producing on the offensive side at will with 15 goals and 22 assists on the season as well as at least one point in 13 of his last 15 games, showing immense amounts of consistency. A more sneaky member of the Flyers’ forward core has found recent success as well, that being Nikita Grebenkin. Grebenkin was able to find the Canucks’ weak spot when the Flyers were victorious in a 5-2 win over the Canucks on December 22nd, where he potted one and dished another. Grebenkin has also been able to maintain that performance, grabbing three points in his last three games.

Vancouver Canucks:

Coming off of an eight game hiatus, Elias Pettersson has been asked to take over more of a leadership role since the loss of Quinn Hughes and other than a scoreless performance n his return game against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, Pettersson found the back of the net last night, knotting the game at two and propelling them to be able to take the win in a shootout. With a much larger role, expect some bigger things out of Elias Pettersson’s game in the near future. Another man assuming a larger role in the absence of Quinn Hughes is the Vancouver Canucks new number one defenseman, Filip Hronek, and boy has he shone as well. Hronek has been slapping his name on the boxscore left and right recently, with six points in the last six games, propelling him to second place in points among the Vancouver Canucks roster with two goals and 20 assists on the year so far.

Injury Report:

Philadelphia Flyers:

RW Tyson Foerster – IR
D Oliver Bonk – IR

Vancouver Canucks:

C Filip Chytil – IR
C Teddy Blueger – IR
D Guillaume Brisebois – IR
D Derek Forbort – LTIR

Next Game:

Philadelphia Flyers: Wednesday, December 31 at Calgary Flames – 9:30pm ET
Vancouver Canucks: Friday, January 2 vs Seattle Kraken – 10:30pm ET

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