Buffalo have to salvage this road trip

Buffalo Sabres (12-14-4) vs Vancouver Canucks (11-16-3)

Puck Drop: 10:00 pm Eastern Time | Rogers Arena | Vancouver, BC

TV: MSG, ESPN+

Radio: WGR 550

Know Your Opponent

Vancouver Canucks

Record: 11-16-3 | 25 PTS

Last Game: 4-0 defeat against Detroit Red Wings

Division Ranking: 8th, Pacific

PP: 17th, 18.8% (19/101) [Sabres: 13th, 20.0% (19/95)]

PK: 30th, 72.0% (72/100) [Sabres: 2nd, 86.2% (75/87)]

What to Watch

1. Beat The Bad Teams

The Sabres have only three road wins this season and none have come in regulation time. There will be no better opportunity to get one this season than against the worst team in the league in their barn.

The Canucks are 4-9-1 at home this season, and 2-7-1 in their last ten. 26th in scoring, 31st in goals against and just overall woeful. If the Sabres are going to try to make anything positive of this season, they have to win tonight.

2. The Return of Demko

A big part of the Canucks woes this season has been the absence of Thatcher Demko with the goaltender missing 12 games with a lower body injury. Vancouver’s starting goalie signed a new three-year deal that kicks in next season and was 5-4-0 with a 2.80 GAA and .903 SV% in 10 games when he went out.

Without him the Canucks have struggled mightily and will be relieved to have the goalie back. Interestingly, Vancouver’s top scorer in their last five games with five points is their fourth-line center Aatu Raty.

We’ll also see a couple of old friends tonight – Evander Kane and Tyler Myers.

3. Make The Power Play Count

The Sabres power play unit is on a five game roll where they have scored seven times. The Canucks penalty kill unit is pretty abysmal sitting in 30th place and Buffalo needs to take advantage of the sixth-most penalized team in the league tonight.

The status of quite a few players on the Sabres is up in the air right now, we’ll likely have more information after the morning skate today, and will update the lineups below after that.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Peyton Krebs – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson – Tyson Kozak – Josh Doan
Isak Rosen – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway – Josh Dunne – Tyson Kozak

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Mattias Samuelsson
Bowen Byram – Conor Timmins
Jacob Bryson – Owen Power

Goalies: Alex Lyon, Ukko Pekka Luukkonen (projected starter)

Vancouver Canucks

Forwards

Brock Boeser – David Kampf – Conor Garland
Evander Kane – Drew O’Connor – Kiefer Sherwood
Jake DeBrusk – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Nils Hoglander – Aatu Raty – Arshdeep Bains

Defense

Quinn Hughes – Filip Hronek
Elias Nils Pettersson – Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson – Tom Willander

Goalies: Thatcher Demko (projected starter), Kevin Lankinen