Canucks Friday
The Canucks continue their brief little stint at home to start the season with a visit from head coach John Tortorella’s Philadelphia Flyers. It’s his club’s season opener after finishing the preseason with a record of 4-and-3.
This is the Flyers 3rd full season with ‘Torts’ behind the bench, coming off the 2023-’24 campaign that saw them finish four points back of the 2nd eastern conference wild card spot.
Tortorella coached the Canucks for one season, 2013-’14, and failed to make the playoffs with a record of 36-35-and-11.
The Canucks are coming off a 6-5 come-from-ahead overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
“We just played loose, like summer hockey,” Vancouver forward J.T. Miller said postgame. (video below) “This is good for us, end of the day, it’s game one, last year we won (our first game) 8-1, and we’re going to say the same thing going into the next one (this time), you’ve gotta turn the page.”
Head coach Rick Tocchet will turn the page with some changes. Noah Juulsen replaces Vinnie Desharnais on the third defence pair while Pius Suter enters the line-up as a forward replacing Nils Aman.
Kevin Lankinen gets the start in goal. The 29-year old Finn will be seeing his 113th NHL game. He spent two seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks before playing the last two with the Nashville Predators. He was acquired as a free agent on September 21st out of necessity, with the uncertainty around injuries to franchise number-one netminder Thatcher Demko, presently on injured reserve.
Look for the Flyers to skate two teenagers, their two most recent top 1st-round picks: Matvei Michkov from 2023 and Jett Luchanko from this past summer. Both are considered offensive phenoms and should get regular shifts at even strength and on special teams.
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