VANCOUVER – Jannik Hansen turned 29 on the weekend and as some of his teammates reminded him Monday, he is now approaching grizzled veteran status with the Vancouver Canucks.

It’s hard to believe, really, but Hansen is in his seventh season with the team. It’s shaping up to be one of his best.

Hansen enters Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers with 14 goals, two off his career-high.

He has 12 points in his last 15 games. Only Henrik Sedin, with 14, has been more productive during that stretch.

Hansen credits good health and a couple of young linemates with his inspired play of late.

Hansen and rookies Bo Horvat and Ronalds Kenins were once known as Vancouver’s fourth line. No longer. They are now the Canucks energy line, one that has routinely been chipping in offence while attempting to forecheck the opposition right out of the rink.

Horvat and Kenins have been a great fit with Hansen in part because they also play the same straight-ahead, aggressive style.

“It makes it easier,” Hansen said Monday. “You don’t have to change your style in order to be comfortable. You just kind of go out and do what comes natural.”

Hansen says the longer he, Horvat and Kenins play together, the more comfortable the trio has become.

“The big thing is knowing where your linemates are, too, and some of the things are starting to happen now where you can make the passes that you maybe don’t see, but you know are there,” he said. “That’s one of the things about consistency with linemates. You get that and it becomes tougher for opposing teams to play against. . .you get a sense of where the other guys are. It is something you are striving to develop throughout the season. Fortunately, right now it looks like we have found something.”

Coach Willie Desjardins has certainly liked what he has seen of Hansen and his line of late.

“I thought Jannik was just okay early, but I’d say the last 25 games he has been really good,” Desjardins said. “He has lots of speed and is always pushing the other team to make decisions quickly. He has been a great fit for that line with how he plays. He sets a good example for everybody.”

That would include Kenins, the impressive Latvian rookie.

“I had played against him in a couple of world championships, so I knew he was a good player,” Kenins said Monday. “Jannik takes care of us. He knows what he is doing and when we make a mistake he will always support us and explain what to do. It is easy playing with him.”

Hansen is one of a large number of Canuck players who seem to have benefitted from a coaching change.

“Obviously it’s two different worlds,” Hansen said. “John (Tortorella) was very ‘my way or the highway,’ a lot more vocal and the player-coach relationship was different. Willie is more down to earth. I don’t think I have heard him chew out a player yet.”

But Hansen says it’s good health more than anything that has helped his play this season. He has missed only one game all year.

“For me personally, it’s all about being healthy,” he said. “Once you are able to stay healthy throughout the season you don’t have those stretches where you are not quite up to game speed or you’re fighting to get back into the lineup.”

It’s not like Desjardins has rewarded him with extra ice time. Hansen has averaged 13:41 a night this season. Last year under Tortorella, he averaged 15:39.

“You can say as much as you want about John and the way he was maybe looked upon, but I was seeing more ice last year than I did this year under Willie,” Hansen said. “So I can’t say it is because of the ice time or deployment. I was playing some power play last year, so I have to believe the biggest thing was injuries.”

ICE CHIPS: Winger Alex Burrows returned to practice Monday after missing Saturday’s game with a groin injury. He is expected to play against the Flyers. . .Winger Derek Dorsett missed Monday practice for what Desjardins called a maintenance day. . .The Canucks signed University of Maine defenceman Ben Hutton on Monday. Hutton, 21, was selected in the fifth round of the 2012 draft (147th overall) by the Canucks. He had 28 goals and 65 points in 108 career games in three seasons with Maine...The Canucks also recalled goalie Jacob Markstrom from the AHL’s Utica Comets, where he demoted to late last week. Markstrom played two games for the Comets on the weekend, shutting out the Chicago Wolves 4-0 on Saturday and beating the Iowa Wild 4-3 in a shootout Sunday. Netminder Joacim Eriksson was reassigned to Utica.

WHO'S NEXT: Flyers at Canucks

RECENT RUN

This is the fourth game of a five-game homestand for the Canucks. They have won two of the first three. Vancouver has gone 6-3-1 in its last 10 and sits second in the Pacific Division. The Flyers are nine points out of a playoff spot and have been horrible on the road, where they are 9-18-9 this season. The Flyers are coming off a 2-1 shootout loss in Ottawa on Sunday night.

WHO’S HOT?

The Canucks are against the Metropolitan Division. Vancouver has gone 12-2-0 versus Metropolitan teams this season. . .Winger Jannik Hansen has 12 points in his last 15 games. . .The Philadelphia power play is third best in the NHL, converting 22.7 per cent of its opportunities. Wayne Simmonds has 14 of his team-best 27 goals on the power play this season. . .Winger Jakub Voracek is fifth in the NHL with 69 points, but 58 of those came in his first 51 games.

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WHO’S NOT?

Daniel and Henrik Sedin don’t have a point in the last three games. . .Vancouver’s power play has fallen to 21st at 17.3 per cent. It has been blanked the last three games and is two-for-24 in the last nine games. Perhaps it can take advantage of Philadelphia’s penalty-kill, which is second worst in the NHL at 76.9 per cent. . .The Flyers are 3-9 in shootouts this season.

HEAD TO HEAD

This is the second of two meetings this season. The Canucks shut out the Flyers 4-0 on Jan. 15 at the Wells Fargo Center and got goals from Nick Bonino, Henrik Sedin, Radim Vrbata and Jannik Hansen. Ryan Miller stopped 29 shots for the shutout. He registered another goose-egg the following night in Carolina. The Flyers beat the Canucks 4-3 in a shootout in their last visit to Rogers Arena on Dec. 30, 2013.

QUOTABLE

“They have a great offence. You have to stay out of the penalty box against those guys. They have one of the best power plays and two of the best playmakers in (Claude) Giroux and Voracek. They have a good net-front presence with Wayne Simmonds and they can shoot pucks from the top. They are a dangerous team. We beat them earlier in their building but it wasn’t easy and we’ll have to have the same effort tomorrow.” -- Canucks winger Alex Burrows on the Flyers.

bziemer@vancouversun.com; twitter.com/bradziemer