Flyers-Canucks: Game 53 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Vancouver Canucks	GP	G	A	P
Claude Giroux	52	16	40	56	Elias Pettersson	41	23	23	46
Jake Voracek	52	11	33	44	Bo Horvat	52	18	24	42
Sean Couturier	50	20	23	43	Brock Boeser	39	17	18	35
Travis Konecny	52	14	16	30	Nikolay Goldobin	45	6	18	24
James van Riemsdyk	36	13	12	25	Loui Eriksson	52	9	12	21

 

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	40 Elias Pettersson
Last 5 Games: 2 G, 2 A, 4 P, +1	Last 5 Games: 4 G, 3 A, 7 P, +2

 

Claude Giroux was held off the scoresheet in wins over the Jets and Rangers last week as well as in the team's final game before the break against Montreal. In the last two, however, Giroux has scored twice and added two assists, with three points coming in Saturday's win.

 

Elias Pettersson may have missed some significant time with injury this season, but the Canucks rookie sensation is still leading the way in points. With 23 goals on the season, the skillset on the 20-year-old is phenomenal and he can take over a game at any time. In his three games back since the injury, Pettersson has one goal and three assists.

 

Goalie Matchup
79 Carter Hart	25 Jacob Markstrom
15 GP, 9-5-1, 2.58 GAA, .921 SV%	38 GP, 20-13-5, 2.79 GAA, .910 SV%

Despite allowing four goals for just the third time in his career on Saturday, Carter Hart still made 40 saves, so his numbers didn't dip that much. He has started six of the seven games on the current winning streak, and gets another chance on Monday night.

Jacob Markstrom gets the start for the Canucks on Monday night. Markstrom made 34 saves in a win over Colorado on Saturday when the Canucks returned from the bye week with a 5-1 win. In his last start before the break, however, Markstrom allowed five goals on 34 shots in a loss to Carolina. 

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Michal Neuvirth, Brian Elliott, Corban Knight

Scratches: Christian Folin, Jori Lehtera

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
25 James van Riemsdyk	28 Claude Giroux	11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom	14 Sean Couturier	93 Jake Voracek
21 Scott Laughton	19 Nolan Patrick	17 Wayne Simmonds
44 Phil Varone	24 Mikhail Vorobyev	12 Michael Raffl
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	6 Travis Sanheim
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	47 Andrew MacDonald
8 Robert Hagg	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
79 Carter Hart

Lineup Notes

The Flyers lineup is expected to remain the same from Saturday's game for Monday's game.

Canucks Projected Lineup

Scratches: Sven Baertschi, Markus Granlund, Alex Biega

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
59 Tim Schaller	53 Bo Horvat	17 Josh Leivo
77 Nikolay Goldobin	40 Elias Pettersson	6 Brock Boeser
26 Antoine Roussel	20 Brandon Sutter	18 Jake Virtanen
21 Loui Eriksson	83 Jay Beagle	64 Tyler Motte
Defense
23 Alexander Edler	8 Chris Tanev
27 Ben Hutton	51 Troy Stecher
5 Derrick Pouliot	44 Erik Gudbranson
Goalie
25 Jacob Markstrom

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (23rd, 17th at home), Canucks (21st, T-19th on road)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (T-26th, 23rd at home), Canucks (T-17th, 26th on road) 
• Recent History vs. Canucks
  • Nov. 21, 2017 – Canucks 5, Flyers 2 (at PHI)
  • Dec. 7, 2017 – Flyers 4, Canucks 1 (at VAN)
  • Dec. 15, 2018 – Canucks 5, Flyers 1 (at VAN)
• Flyers Leaders vs. Canucks
  • Claude Giroux – 15 GP, 4 G, 10 A, 14 P
  • Shayne Gostisbehere – 6 GP, 1 G, 4 A, 5 P
  • Jake Voracek – 24 GP, 3 G, 14 A, 17 P
  • James van Riemsdyk – 13 GP, 5 G, 3 A, 8 P
• Milestone Watch
  • The next win will be the 2,000th win in Flyers franchise history.
  • Claude Giroux is playing in his 791st career game tonight, moving into third place all-time in Flyers franchise history.
  • Radko Gudas needs two points to reach 100 for his career.

Where to Watch
TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic