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Scenes from morning skate: Lekkerimäki promoted to top line as struggling Canucks face floundering Flyers

Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jeff Paterson

Nov 9, 2026, 14:20 ESTUpdated: Nov 9, 2026, 14:18 EST

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The Vancouver Canucks (3-15-1) reach the 20-game mark when they host the Philadelphia Flyers (4-10-4) at Rogers Arena. Tonight’s game is being streamed on Sportsnet Plus and begins at 7:30 pm PCT.

It’s the first of two meetings between the teams this month, with the Canucks visiting Philadelphia for an early afternoon game on Black Friday, November 27th.

What we saw

Jeff Paterson

@patersonjeff

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#Canucks this morning Lekkerimaki-EP40-Boeser Öhgren-Rossi-Gallagher O’Connor-Sasson-Karlsson DeBrusk-Cotter-Bains Extras: Quillan & Chytil Buium-Hronek Oleksiak-Brisebois DPetey-Schenn Willander-Mancini

5:37 PM · Nov 9, 2026

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After a team day off Sunday, Manny Malhotra had his entire group on the ice for a full morning skate today. Injured players Filip Chytil and Tom Willander were both full participants, although neither will play tonight. Chytil has been sidelined for four games, while Willander has missed the past three contests.

Jonathan Lekkerimaki will start tonight on the top line with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. The young winger has gone five games without a goal since scoring a pair of late goals in the team’s last win in Anaheim on October 27th.

Boeser and Max Sasson scored the Canucks goals in a 4-2 loss in Edmonton on Saturday. It was the team’s fifth straight defeat. Leevi Meriläinen made 26 saves. He will make his third straight start and seventh in the past eight games. Going back to an October 13th start against the New York Islanders, Meriläinen is starting for the 10th time in the team’s last 13 outings.

Boeser has scored in five of the last seven games and now has the team lead with seven goals on the season. Boeser is two points shy of 500 for his NHL career. Elias Pettersson had an assist on Saturday in Edmonton and has a team-high 19 points in 19 games. However, Pettersson has gone three games without a shot on goal and has not scored in seven games since October 22nd against Detroit.

Filip Hronek’s assist on Boeser’s goal on Saturday was the 300th point of his NHL career. The veteran defenceman logged a season-high 29:50, including a whopping 12:12 of the third period alone.

Based on this morning’s skate, Jacob Quillan and Victor Mancini will be healthy scratches for the second straight game.

The Canucks are 0-8-1 in nine games against Eastern Conference foes this season.

The Opponent

The Flyers are playing for the second straight night following a 4-3 overtime loss in Calgary on Sunday. They have dropped three straight and are 1-4-2 in their last seven games. Denver Barkey, Noel Acciari and Owen Tippett scored the Philadelphia goals. Acciari has scored in consecutive outings. For Tippett, a 28-goal scorer a year ago, it was just his second goal of the season. Tippett, however, was also on the ice for all four Calgary goals scored last night.

Jackie Spiegel

@jackiespiegel93

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#Flyers coach Rick Tocchet on 3rd period: "Well, I think it's a broken record of moments, right? We have a PP we're up 3-2, give them a SHG. ... We got a 3-on-1, we don't even get a shot on net. They have a 3-on-1, they score. So, that's the moments that we're looking for."

3:35 AM · Nov 9, 2026

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Dan Vladar made 22 saves in goal, but with the Flyers playing back-to-back, it’s quite likely Joseph Woll will get the start tonight. Woll is 1-6-2 on the season with a 3.12 GAA and an .899 save percentage. Woll’s last NHL shutout came against the Canucks in January while a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Matvei Michkov was held off the scoresheet last night but leads Philadelphia with 10 goals, while Trevor Zegras has a team-high 14 points. Rick Tocchet’s club is the second-lowest-scoring team in the league, averaging 2.21 goals per game.

Defenceman Jamie Drysdale has six assists on a four-game point streak.

They are 1-6-2 away from home this season and have been outscored 29-16. Last night was just the second time in nine road games that Philadelphia has scored three times.

News and notes

The Flyers swept the season series from the Canucks last season, winning twice a week apart over the Christmas period. They were 5-2 winners on home ice on December 22nd and prevailed 6-3 in Vancouver on December 30th.

The referees for tonight’s game are Kendrick Nicholson and Furman South.

What we heard

Manny Malhotra was encouraged by the way his team pushed the Oilers on Saturday and wants to see more of that tonight: “More of the same in terms of the response of the effort we put into the game. It was a much better response in terms of the overall compete level of our group. Within that, the structure looked a lot better. We broke pucks out a lot better. It all comes back to that effort portion of it. That’s going to be the first thing and foremost for us tonight is to come back with that same level of energy and the rest of it will fall into place.”

Don’t forget to join Rink Wide Vancouver for full postgame coverage after this game – and every game. The livestream starts moments after the final buzzer. Rink Wide is the place for full postgame analysis and discussion. Contribute to the live YouTube conversation with your thoughts on the game and support our charity partner – the BC Mental Health Foundation – with a Superchat.

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