PREVIEW | Canucks at Sabres

CANUCKS AT SABRES PREVIEW

MATCH-UP INFO

• Tonight marks the first of two meetings between the Canucks and Sabres this season: Oct. 19 (road), Mar. 20 (home).
• Vancouver is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games vs Buffalo (3-1-1 in their last 5).
• The Canucks have a 55-47-19-3 all-time record in 124 games against the Sabres. Vancouver owns a 22-29-8-3 record on the road in Buffalo.
• Among active Canucks skaters, J.T. Miller leads the team in career points vs Buffalo with 17 points (7-10-17) in 22 games.
• Thatcher Demko has faced the Sabres twice in his career (2-0-0), owning a .881 SV% and 3.90 GAA.
• Jaroslav Halak has faced the Sabres 17 times in his career (13-4-0) and has a .923 SV% and 2.08 GAA.

LAST MEETING - JAN. 11/20: VAN 6 at BUF 3

Brock Boeser scored two goals including the GWG...J.T. Miller, Jake Virtanen, Bo Horvat and Loui Eriksson each scored a goal...12 players on the Canucks roster recorded at least one point...Canucks tallied 4 goals in the third period...Tyler Myers led the Canucks in ice time (23:55)...Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves.

LAST GAME PLAYED - OCT. 16/21: VAN 1 at DET 3

Conor Garland scored his first goal as a Canuck at 4:56 in the second period...Horvat and Pearson recorded assists on the play...Quinn Hughes led all Canucks in TOI (29:09) while Oliver Ekman-Larsson led the team in shots (6)...Kyle Burroughs led all skaters in blocked shots (3)...The Canucks recorded a season high in shots (41)...Jaroslav Halák made his Canucks debut facing 21 shots.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS

• Alex Chiasson signed to a one-year contract, Oct. 12
• Juho Lammikko and Noah Juulsen acquired from Florida in exchange for Olli Juolevi, Oct. 10
• Justin Bailey, Madison Bowey, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Travis Hamonic designated for assignment to Abbotsford, Oct. 10

J-THREE MILLER

Collecting three points (1-2-3) on Oct. 15 at PHI, J.T. Miller recorded his ninth game with three or more points since joining the Canucks in 2019. Miller now has 122 points (43-79-122) in 124 games with Vancouver, ranking third overall in Canucks history in points per game (0.98) among skaters with a minimum 120 games played.

KING OF THE CREASE

Stopping both shots faced in the shootout on Oct. 15 at PHI, Thatcher Demko (.813) passed Eddie Lack (.805) for the highest shootout save percentage in franchise history. Among all NHL goalies to have faced at least 30 shootout shots, Demko ranks sixth all time.

FINDING THE SCORESHEET

Notching his team's first goal of the evening on Oct. 15 at PHI, Vasily Podkolzin became just the third Russian player in franchise history to score a goal within his first two career games, joining Vladimir Krutov (1989) and Artem Chubarov (1999).

FIRST G-OEL

Oliver Ekman-Larsson notched Vancouver's first goal of the season at 12:28 in the third period, on the power play, in the Canucks' season opener on Oct. 13 at EDM. In doing so, he became only the fourth defenceman in Canucks history to score a goal in the team's season opener while also making their Canucks debut (Wilkins, 1970; Guevremont, 1971; Lanz, 1980).

ROAD TRIPPIN'

The Canucks begin their 2021.22 season by embarking on a six-game road trip from Oct. 13-23, marking the club's longest road trip to start a season in franchise history. It is Vancouver's longest road trip to start a season since a four-game road trip to start the 2006.07 campaign (2-1-1 record).

DEBUTS TO WATCH FOR

Three players on Vancouver's active roster have yet to make their regular season Canucks debut:
- Brad Hunt signed as a free agent on July 28. A native of Maple Ridge, BC, Hunt has appeared in 191 career games with Edmonton, St. Louis, Nashville, Vegas and Minnesota, accumulating 59 points (19-40-59) and 28 penalty minutes. - Nic Petan signed a two-way deal as a free agent on July 28. The Delta, BC native appeared in seven games with the Leafs last season, registering one point (0-1-1) and four penalty minutes and 14 games with the Marlies recording 15 points (7-8-15) and six penalty minutes.