Something will have to give when the Philadelphia Flyers visit the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night, as both teams are in losing streaks, with Vancouver dropping five straight and Philadelphia dropping three. It has been especially rough for the Flyers, who were supposed to challenge for the playoffs again this season but have been significant underachievers.
The Flyers held three different leads on Sunday night against the Calgary Flames but squandered each of them before losing 4-3 in overtime. The Canucks dropped their last game on Saturday night, 4-2, against the Edmonton Oilers. They've tallied just seven points all season, sitting with a record of 3-15-1.
The approach is this: if the Flyers can’t find a way to defeat the Canucks, even in a second game of a back-to-back, then Philadelphia needs wholesale changes. There would be some irony in Rick Tocchet’s demise happening against his old team, but I don't think the Flyers are bad enough to lose to a team that's been playing like the Canucks over the last 10 games.
Flyers vs Canucks prediction: Flyers ML (-145) available at time of publishing. Playable to that number.
