Canucks Army GDT #47 – Canucks vs. Sabres

Broadcast Info

Lineups

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Radim Vrbata
Chris Higgins	Linden Vey	Alexandre Burrows
Shawn Matthias	Nick Bonino	Jannik Hansen
Derek Dorsett	Bo Horvat	Zack Kassian

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Luca Sbisa
Dan Hamhuis	Frank Corrado
Chris Tanev	Yannick Weber

Brad Richardson is doubtful with a foot injury. Newly acquired Adam Clendening could play tonight if he arrives in Vancouver on time. Ronalds Kenins may make his Canucks debut in place of Derek Dorsett on line 4. The Edler-Tanev pairing has been split up in practice, meaning Luca Sbisa could play the right side with Edler tonight and no oh god please no. Ryan Miller will get the start against his longtime team.

LW	C	RW
Matt Moulson	Zemgus Girgensons	Tyler Ennis
Brian Flynn	Torrey Mitchell	Brian Gionta
Drew Stafford	Cody Hodgson	Chris Stewart
Nicolas Deslauriers	Matt Ellis	Patrick Kaleta

Defensive Pairings
Josh Gorges	Tyler Myers
Mike Weber	Tyson Strachan
Andrej Meszaros	Rasmus Ristolainen

Nikita Zadorov is eligible to play after serving his team-imposed suspension. Marcus Foligno is out with a hand injury. Tyler Myers is questionable with an ankle injury. Jhonas Enroth will start in goal.

Head to Head

Storylines

• Catching Up with Old Friends – Ryan Miller will face the team he played the majority of his career with for the first time tonight. In his career with Buffalo, Miller had 284 wins, and made 4 playoff appearances, including two extended runs in 05-06 and 06-07. He holds the Sabres career records for games played and wins, and sits second behind Dominik Hasek in career save percentage and shutouts. Miller turned in a strong performance against another former team, the St. Louis Blues, earlier this season, and will look to do the same tonight.
• New Faces – If all goes according to plan, two players could make their Vancouver Canucks debut tonight: Ronalds Kenins and Adam Clendening. Kenins, 23, is a Latvian international that’s been plying his trade in a bottom-6 role for the Utica Comets this year, and is described as playing an energetic and grinding-type game. Clendening, 22, was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks last night and is an elite AHL puck-mover that needs to work on rounding out his defensive game. It’s fairly certain that Kenins will make his NHL debut with Derek Dorsett out, but whether Clendening plays will be dependent on his arrival from Rockford.
• Buffalol – The Sabres are bad. Very bad. They are so far and away the worst puck possession group we have on record that it’s insane. They can’t score goals (last in the NHL with 92) and they can’t prevent goals (last in the NHL with 174 against). Their penalty kill sucks and their powerplay is somehow worse. Cody Hodgson, who was expected to develop into a top-6 forward, is a possible buyout candidate. They have lost a staggering 13 games in a row, all in regulation, and haven’t won a hockey game in over a month. There are literally zero redeeming qualities about the team other than the fact that they are frontrunners for Connor McDavid. This Travis Yost chart was two weeks ago, and the Sabres have since broken the minus-1000 Corsi mark, becoming the fastest team to ever do so. They should catch the 2014 Leafs at minus-1092 within the next week or two:

Gameday Reading

• Canucks.com’s Tale of the Tape
• Nick Bonino to get his shot on Vancouver’s top unit powerplay
• Canucks acquire Adam Clendening for Gustav Forsling. Read our initial thoughts and analysis here
• Our friends at PiTB look at the Canucks scoring struggles and Shawn Matthias’ bizarre new-found PK dominance
• Read this week’s Utica Comets report, courtesy of Josh Weissbock