Canucks at Sabres
The Vancouver Canucks barely avoided finishing at the bottom of the Western Conference in 2017-18, but they are among the league's early-season surprises and sitting atop the Pacific Division. The Canucks have earned points in five straight games and will look to extend their run on Saturday afternoon when they visit the Buffalo Sabres in the third stop of a six-game road trip.
Vancouver erupted for a season-high goal total in Thursday's 8-5 win at Boston and has amassed 26 goals during the five-game point streak. "There is a lot of resiliency in this room," Canucks forward Bo Horvat said. "In preseason, people didn't think we were going to be that high-scoring of a team, but we keep proving people wrong and that's what we need to continue to do." Buffalo's offense also has perked up over the past week with a nine-goal outburst against Ottawa and a six-goal eruption in Thursday's overtime win at Montreal. Jeff Skinner scored twice against the Canadiens and has 11 goals on the season -- 10 coming in his last nine games.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet East, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver), MSG-Buffalo
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (10-6-1): Despite the absence of Brock Boeser (groin), a 29-goal scorer last season who was sent back to Vancouver to see a specialist, the Canucks received two goals apiece from Horvat and Loui Eriksson. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson scored one goal and set up another to extend his point streak to four games and give him six points on the season -- one more than he had in 2017-18. "The prior two years I don't know if we had the resiliency," Gudbranson said. "A goal goes in, something bad happens and doubt would creep in, but mentally we are much stronger this year."
ABOUT THE SABRES (8-6-2): The line of Skinner, captain Jack Eichel and Jason Pominville has amassed 43 points over the last nine games, but they received a boost from the supporting cast in Thursday's victory. Evan Rodrigues was shifted to center on a line with Vladimir Sobotka and Sam Reinhart and the unit responded by notching two points apiece, led by Sobotka with a pair of tallies. "It's easier to build speed as a center when you're coming from underneath," Rodrigues said. "I wanted to make things happen and that's the mentality I got to have going into every game."
OVERTIME
1. Eichel has seven assists in his last four games to give him 15 on the season.
2. Horvat has nine goals and six assists in 17 games after his four-point effort at Montreal.
3. Skinner has two goals in 11 games versus Vancouver.