After four straight road wins, the Vancouver Canucks head into the second-last game of their seven-game road trip with their eyes on two points in Buffalo.
The Lotto Line has been the story for the Canucks on this road trip. The top-line trio of Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson have combined for 27 points over their four-game winning streak.
27 points in four games.
The first thing we should discuss about Saturday’s game is the start time. It’s another whacky weekend start as the game is scheduled for 1:00 pm PT.
Though they are currently out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the Buffalo Sabres have been playing like a playoff team lately. The Sabres are 5-3-1 over their last nine games including a 9-3 stomping of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Young talent is on display within the Sabres lineup. 25-year-old Casey Mittelstadt is leading the way with 35 points through 42 games. The forward group has a lot of talent with Alex Tuch, Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Zach Benson, and Jordan Greenway to name a few. Even with their talent up front, it’s a pair of defencemen that draw the bulk of eyes every Sabres game.
Numbers 25 and 26 in your programs are Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin. Both of these left-shot defencemen were selected first overall in their respective NHL drafts – Dahlin went first overall in 2018 and Power in 2021.
At 23 years old, Dahlin has evolved into a top-five defenceman in the league and is starting to see his offensive numbers pop over the past couple of seasons. Dahlin is up to 12 goals and 22 assists for 34 points this season. Those 34 points put him seventh in points from a defenceman – right behind Filip Hronek (36). Dahlin is becoming a minute-munching horse on the blue line. He averages 24:57 of ice time per game, which puts him eighth in the league.
Owen Power may just be 21 years old, but he is a force on the backend. At 6’6” and 221 lbs, Power is hard to miss out there. His defensive game has improved since coming into the NHL and he’s been able to use his reach to his advantage in his own zone.
Quick Hits on the Competition:
- Jeff Skinner is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. That’s forced a shift in the Sabres’ top-six.
- There are six players with double-digit goals: Jeff Skinner (17 but injured), Tage Thompson (14), JJ Peterka (13), Rasmus Dahlin (12), Alex Tuch (11), and Casey Mittelstadt (11).
- Each of the Sabres’ two goaltenders is very young, Devon Levi (22) and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (24) have pretty much been splitting starts this season though each goalie has had a chance to run as a starter this season.
- Both Luukkonen and Levi have a sub-.900% save percentage and Luukkonen is the only one with a shutout this season. In terms of results, Luukkonen’s 9-8-2 record is just a tad better than Levi’s 8-7-2.
- The Sabres have the 27th-ranked power play in the league. It is clicking at 14.2% and they are missing their best power play scorer in Skinner, who has 35% of the Sabres' power play goals this season. Thompson and Dahlin are the current leaders in the lineup -- each with three goals on the man-advantage.
- The penalty kill is better, the Sabres are currently 19th in the league with a 78.5% kill rate. Thompson is the leader in shorthanded goals with two on the year. Erik Johnson will eat up a ton of shorthanded minutes – he's ninth in the league for shorthanded minutes player per game with 3:15.
The Canucks are riding high after an electric overtime win on Thursday night that saw them take their road winning streak to four games.
We mentioned The Lotto Line earlier but let’s give a special spotlight on what Elias Pettersson has done over his last four games.
Pettersson has scored the game-winning goal in each of the Canucks’ last four games. A feat that has never been accomplished in this league during four consecutive road games.
