Canucks Army THE GAME DAY – Canucks Vs. Sabres
By Always90four
4 years agoTHE INTRO
It’s 80’s night (day) at Rogers Arena and the Canucks will rock the Flying-V in warmups and then the black skate AGAIN! Christmas came early. The Canucks are healthy as a horse going into the game today with Micheal Ferland, Jay Beagle, and Brandon Sutter all likely to return. If the Sabres wore their 50th-anniversary jerseys with the gold logo it would be the ultimate threads matchup.
Will the Canucks lay down the hammer again today and put up a six-spot?
Let’s Do This!™
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
The odds for today’s game are: (VAN -150/ BUF +130) courtesy of OddsShark.com
TV / RADIO / PUCK DROP
SNP / SN 650 / 1:00 PM
LINEUPS
If you’re an injured Canuck, the odds are pretty, darn good you play… unless you’re Alex Edler. Word on the street is Micheal Ferland, Jay Beagle, AND Brandon Sutter are back for the Canucks. That makes things interesting for scratches. Nikolay Goldobin was sent down in response to the wave of healthiness returning.
With that much talent coming back, Loui Eriksson, Zack MacEwen and possibly Tim Schaller could be out.
No word on Jacob Markstrom so it should be Thatcher Demko and Michael DiPietro.
Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 TANNER PEARSON Rating: 74.0#40 LW |  BO HORVAT Rating: 75.5#34 C |  JOSH LEIVO Rating: 72.3#72 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 73.93#25 FL1 |
 J.T. MILLER Rating: 74.9#29 LW |  ELIAS PETTERSSON Rating: 78.1#16 C |  BROCK BOESER Rating: 75.9#14 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 76.29#6 FL2 |
 ANTOINE ROUSSEL Rating: 71.2#98 LW |  ADAM GAUDETTE Rating: 70.6#156 C |  NIKOLAY GOLDOBIN Rating: 70.7#102 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 70.82#28 FL3 |
 LOUI ERIKSSON Rating: 70.3#119 LW |  TIM SCHALLER Rating: 69.3#132 C |  ZACK MACEWEN | FL4 Rating Rating: 69.79#29 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 JORDIE BENN Rating: 72.1#81 LD |  CHRIS TANEV Rating: 71.6#88 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 71.85#30 DL1 |
 QUINN HUGHES Rating: 75.3#21 LD |  TYLER MYERS Rating: 73.0#52 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 74.14#13 DL2 |
 OSCAR FANTENBERG Rating: 71.8#88 LD |  TROY STECHER Rating: 72.2#69 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.02#17 DL3 |
Kyle Okposo is still out with a concussion, Vladimir Sobotka had knee surgery and also won’t be in the lineup for the foreseeable future. Former first-overall pick Rasmus Dahlin is also out with a conussion. He didn’t play in Calgary either so Canucks fans won’t get to see the Swedish defenseman live.
Tage Thompson is still out with a UBI.
Tough to say who backstops the Sabres today, but my guess is Linus Ullmark.
Sabres lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 VICTOR OLOFSSON Rating: 74.5#34 LW |  JACK EICHEL Rating: 81.9#4 C |  SAM REINHART Rating: 74.8#45 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 77.03#7 FL1 |
 JEFF SKINNER Rating: 75.7#23 LW |  JOHAN LARSSON Rating: 69.6#175 C |  CONOR SHEARY Rating: 71.5#93 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 72.24#28 FL2 |
 CASEY MITTELSTADT Rating: 70.6#111 LW |  MARCUS JOHANSSON Rating: 72.0#109 C |  JIMMY VESEY Rating: 72.7#69 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 71.76#19 FL3 |
 ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS Rating: 70.8#147 LW |  RASMUS ASPLUND Rating: 73.4#68 C |  EVAN RODRIGUES Rating: 71.8#87 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 72.01#7 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 BRANDON MONTOUR Rating: 74.2#38 LD |  RASMUS RISTOLAINEN Rating: 73.4#40 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 73.76#20 DL1 |
 MARCO SCANDELLA Rating: 72.6#70 LD |  HENRI JOKIHARJU Rating: 72.2#15 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 72.43#28 DL2 |
 COLIN MILLER Rating: 73.1#45 LD |  ZACH BOGOSIAN Rating: 72.0#80 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.54#13 DL3 |
GAME NOTES AND A STAT OR TWO
- Vancouver is 2-3 in their last five games with 19 GF and 17 against. They play high-event, high scoring hockey. In that same timespan, the Sabres have played seven games and put up a 3-2-0-2 record with a 26/21 GF/GA output. This could be VANCOUVER/PITTSBURGH: THE SEQUEL. Yikes!
- Jack Eichel is on an 11-game point streak. He’s crushed home 10 goals and 10 assists in that time. The Canucks have been known to be slump busters in many ways, could they end Eichel’s ridiculous streak?
- Micheal Ferland is back and you most likely forgot he did more than you remember. Ferland had five points in his first 12 games with Vancouver and three assists in his last three games prior to the concussion. Ferland hasn’t been healthy long enough to form a good take on his play so he does have the opportunity to make a difference on this team.
- Are the Canucks clowning with us or could they actually end up being one of the top-scoring teams in the West this season? A recent article has the Canucks outscoring seven of the eight teams predicted to make the playoffs based on their current pace, yet Vancouver will just miss out by two points. They’ll have to be more than mediocre as the calendar turns to 2020 if they want to steal a spot in the playoffs come April.
- The Skate jersey makes a surprising appearance today against the Sabres after a lot of “positive” feedback. There is a better than good chance the Canucks are heavily trolling Canucks Nation and had this planned all along and essentially used every home game after the first one they wore the Skate as a “flex-game”. The positive feedback is a BS comment as the Skate has been one of the top-selling apparel lines for many years (coming from a guy that could never keep it in stock at his sports shop). There was a time where the Canucks merchandise was the hottest thing going and they essentially printed money with their one-off hats and tees and any time the Skate logo made an appearance, it didn’t last long.
- It would surprise no one if the Canucks optioned the Skate as a second alternate at home starting next season for a handful of games each year. It won’t become their full-time logo with the Orca being the longest-running primary logo in Canucks history but the writing is officially on the wall. Nostalgia has returned in numerous NHL markets and the Canucks would be wise to embrace the one thing they did amazingly well. #EmbraceTheSkate
#CANUCKSTWITTER
When you take every single face-off, you learn a thing or two:
Just like Canucks Army, Bobby Lu is a clown too!
MY 94 CENTS
Quinn Hughes goes H.A.M today.
That’s it.
AND ANOTHER THING…
I wonder if he ever would have beat Pat Lafontaine’s records?
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