Win Streak Ends At Four As Canucks Lose 5–2 To The Philadelphia Flyers

The Vancouver Canucks’ win streak has ended at four games, as Vancouver lost by a score of 5–2 to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. Max Sasson and Drew O’Connor were the two Canucks to find the back of the net tonight, while Thatcher Demko ended up facing 38 shots and stopped 34. 

The score did not provide a great indicator of which team performed best tonight, as it felt as though Philadelphia massively outplayed the Canucks for the majority of the game. Vancouver, who played in their fifth game since last Sunday, was unable to hit the 20-shot mark until the third period tonight. By the time Vancouver looked like they were finding their legs during the third period, the Flyers had brought their lead up to 3–0. 

One glaring issue the Canucks had tonight against the Flyers was testing Dan Vladar properly. They were unable to generate many shots throughout all three periods, resulting in Vancouver putting up a very small amount of high-danger chances. On the flip side, they allowed Philadelphia lots of opportunities to test Demko. 

Tonight’s game resulted in another stupendous performance from Demko, who was sharp in all scenarios, stopping shots from far away and even more dangerous attempts up-close. As great as it is that Demko made all his stops in the first period particularly, the fact of the matter is also that he had to stop 14 shots throughout this span of time — not an ideal situation to be in. Demko was the reason Vancouver looked like they were in this game up until the third period. 

The Canucks’ power play has scored five goals in the team’s past five games, only going without a power play goal against the New York Rangers last Tuesday, though that strong stretch changed tonight. Vancouver got 1.5 power play opportunities during the first period but were not able to generate enough quality chances to score the opening goal on the man-advantage. Their second power play, which trailed into the second period, was a lot less cohesive than their first and only generated one shot. 

Another thing that happened tonight is that Patrik Allvin spoke to the Prime Monday Night Hockey hosts during the first intermission. Here’s what he had to say about how his team has been performing since the Quinn Hughes trade: 

“[I] give the players a lot of credit here, how they’ve come together as a team again. You see a lot of energy around the dressing room, and we play with a little bit more speed and [...] want to play fast. And I believe we played fast here over the last couple of games.” 

After such a surprising stretch of play during this road trip, this particular effort is one that Vancouver will not want to repeat if they want to recover their derailed season. 

Stats and Facts: 

• Vancouver does not score in the first period for the first time since December 8 vs. the Detroit Red Wings 
• Vancouver registers their first road loss since December 2 against the Colorado Avalanche 
• Thatcher Demko finishes Vancouver’s road trip with 105 shots stopped of 111

Scoring Summary: 

1st Period: 

No Scoring. 

2nd Period: 

13:13 - PHI: Nikita Grebenkin (2) from Emil Andrae and Rodrigo Abols 

3rd Period: 

5:58 - PHI: Carl Grundstrom (4) from Nikita Grebenkin and and Rodrigo Abols 

7:49: PHI: Christian Dvorak (8) from Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny 

13:05 - VAN: Max Sasson (8) from Conor Garland and Tyler Myers 

15:33 - PHI: Owen Tippett (11) from Cam York 

18:48 - PHI: Matvei Michkov (9) from Noah Cates (ENG) 

19:42 - VAN: Drew O’Connor (8) from Zeev Buium and Elias Pettersson 

Up Next: 

Tonight’s match was Vancouver’s last before the holidays. The Canucks will now head home to celebrate before returning to action on December 27 with a game against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT. 

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