Flyers vs. Canucks Game Preview: Is Rick Tocchet's Future in Jeopardy?

After blowing three leads on Sunday night, the Philadelphia Flyers have fallen to 4-10-5 on the season, with virtually no hope in sight at this point. And, for as long as these struggles continue, we all have to wonder what comes next.

Of course, Monday's second leg of this back-to-back sees the Flyers head west to face the Vancouver Canucks, who have one fewer win this season with their paltry 3-15-1 record through 19 games.

It's an important homecoming of sorts for Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet, who spurned the Canucks in 2025 to join the Flyers as their new head coach, only for both franchises to be left floundering less than two years later.

Now, it feels quite realistic that, as the Flyers continue to blow leads and give away game after game, and with Tocchet's preached messages perpetually slipping through the cracks, that the head coach's job is on the line.

For the Flyers, going up against this Canucks team that is objectively the worst in the NHL feels like a real challenge.

Because Dan Vladar played on Sunday night, Joseph Woll will be the starting goalie against the Canucks on Monday night. At the other end, Leevi Merilainen is likely to start for Vancouver.

Flyers lines vs. Canucks

Trevor Zegras - Cole Knuble - Owen Tippett

Porter Martone - Noah Cates - Matvei Michkov

Tyson Foerster - Christian Dvorak - Travis Konecny

Denver Barkey - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari

Travis Sanheim - Jamie Drysdale

Cam York - Oliver Bonk

Nick Seeler - Simon Benoit

Joseph Woll (S), Dan Vladar

Healthy scratches: Michael Bunting, David Jiricek

Canucks lines for Flyers game

Arshdeep Bains - Elias Pettersson - Brock Boeser

Liam Ohgren - Marco Rossi - Jonathan Lekkerimaki

Jake DeBrusk - Paul Cotter - Brendan Gallagher

Drew O'Connor - Max Sasson - Brendan Gallagher

Zeev Buium - Filip Hronek

Elias Pettersson - Luke Schenn

Jamie Oleksiak - Guillaume Brisebois

Leevi Merilainen (S), Kevin Lankinen

Flyers special teams

Power play: 10-for-58, 17.2% (27th)

Penalty kill: 50-for-62, 80.6% (10th)

Canucks special teams

Power play: 12-for-48, 20.7% (20th)

Penalty kill: 40-for-63, 63.5% (31st)

How to watch the Flyers game

Monday night's Flyers game can be found on NBC Sports Philadelphia and Sportsnet West.

Flyers player to watch

Owen Tippett was our player to watch last night, and while he did score a power play goal, he was also on the ice for all four goals by Calgary, including the overtime winner and a short-handed breakaway from Joel Farabee that tied the game.

For Monday night's game, against a Canucks team that boasts the second-worst penalty kill unit in the NHL, we have to spotlight the entire Flyers power play.

Matvei Michkov, after a hot run of form, has cooled off considerably, going scoreless in each of the Flyers' last two games, while also failing to record a shot on goal in either.

Michkov, along with Trevor Zegras, has been the catalyst for this toothless Philadelphia offense.

Zegras took a costly delay of game penalty in Sunday night's 4-3 overtime loss to Calgary, and he has just two assists in his last five games, as well as a -4 rating, 16 penalty minutes, and only 10 shots on goal.

Without him and Michkov going at full-bore, the Flyers have no chance of winning, and it's showed.

Now that losses are beginning to pile up again in rapid succession, it certainly feels as though the Flyers, and Tocchet especially, have a lot riding on this game against the Canucks.