On Tuesday, Dec. 30, the Vancouver Canucks hosted former head coach Rick Tocchet and the Philadelphia Flyers for their second matchup of the 2025-26 season. They last met on Dec. 22 in Philadelphia, with the Flyers walking away with a 5-2 win. Both teams were coming off games against the Seattle Kraken, the Flyers losing 4-1 on Sunday (Dec. 28) and the Canucks winning 3-2 in a shootout on Monday (Dec. 29).
After a slow start, the Flyers pulled out another win over the Canucks, 6-3, extending Vancouver’s struggles at Rogers Arena as they fell to 4-12-1 at home.
Noah Cates, Carl Grundstrom, Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink, Owen Tippett, and Christian Dvorak scored for the Flyers. Dan Vladar made 32 saves.
David Kampf, Drew O’Connor, and Tom Willander scored for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko made 27 saves.
Game Recap
The Canucks dominated possession and the shot clock for the first 10 minutes of the game, but only got one goal to show for it. Kampf opened the scoring in the midst of that domination with his second of the season, taking a pass from Drew O’Connor and firing it past Vladar while fighting through a Jamie Drysdale check in the slot. The Flyers were outshot 10-5 and outchanced 11-6 (5-1 high-danger), but finished the period tied at one. Cates and Vladar made sure of that, as the former wristed one by Demko with some help from Liam Ohgren at 12:02, and the latter stopped nine of 10 shots.
The Flyers rewarded Vladar for his efforts in the first period with some goal support in the second. In fact, they flipped the script on the Canucks and unleashed some domination of their own. It started with an extended shift in the Canucks’ zone, culminating in Grundstrom’s seventh of the season, as he busted in on the right wing and roofed it over Demko’s shoulder at 3:40. Then, late in the period at 16:20, Konecny potted his 12th to extend the Flyers’ lead to 3-1 as he converted a rebound as he was falling, elevating it into the top corner over a sprawling Demko. The period ended that way, with the Flyers outshooting the Canucks 18-9 and 23-19 overall in the game.
The Canucks quickly pulled within one early in the third period with O’Connor’s 10th, but the Flyers responded almost immediately with Brink’s 10th as well. It was 4-2 for almost the rest of the period, until two empty-netters by Tippett and Dvorak sandwiched between Willander’s second career goal capped the Flyers’ 6-3 win.
The Canucks outshot the Flyers 35-33 and went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Flyers went 0-for-1.
What’s Next
The Canucks will resume their brief three-game homestand on Jan. 2 against the Kraken, while the Flyers will travel to Calgary to take on the Flames in a New Year’s Eve matchup tomorrow.
