The Vancouver Canucks (11-7-3) play the fourth game of their six-game road trip when they face the Buffalo Sabres (11-10-1) at KeyBank Center on Friday afternoon. It’s US Thanksgiving weekend, which accounts for the unusual 3 pm local/12 pm PT puck drop.
Because of the early start time, the Canucks did not hold a morning skate. It will likely be much closer to game time before the line-up is known. 
Expect Kevin Lankinen to return to the net after he backed up Artrus Silovs in a 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday. Lankinen was perfect in his last start stopping all 32 shots he faced for his second shutout of the season as the Canucks blanked the Boston Bruins 2-0 on Tuesday night. Lankinen is 8-0 on the road as a Canuck.
The club hasn’t confirmed anything yet, but there are reports that Filip Hronek is going to miss a significant amount of time with an upper-body injury suffered in the late stages of the loss in Pittsburgh. If that’s the case, it’s a serious blow to an already thin blue line. Hronek is second on the Canucks in average ice time per game (23:36) and has a goal and eight assists in 21 games so far this season.
If Hronek is unable to play, Vincent Desharnais will likely draw into the line-up for the first time since November 14th against the New York Islanders. He was shaken up in that game and has missed the past six contests. Mark Friedman was recalled from AHL Abbotsford yesterday and could also be an option. Friedman has not seen NHL game action since Game 82 against the Winnipeg Jets in last season’s finale.
To make room on the roster for Friedman, the Canucks returned Arshdeep Bains to the minors. That leaves the big league club with just 12 healthy forwards on the road trip so it will be all hands on deck up front today. That includes Max Sasson who will play his third NHL game. He has picked up a primary assist in each of his first two games in Ottawa and Pittsburgh.
The Canucks fell behind the Penguins 5-1 before rallying with three unanswered goals to make things interesting. It was just the second road loss of the season and snapped the team’s eight-game road win streak. Quinn Hughes had a goal and two assists while Elias Pettersson scored and had a helper. Aatu Räty and Pius Suter had the other Vancouver goals. Pettersson and Suter now share the team lead with seven goals on the season.
Wednesday night was the sixth time in 21 games that the Canucks have allowed five or more goals in a game. It was also the fifth time they’ve allowed the opening goal in the first five minutes this season.

The opponent

The Sabres are back in action after falling 1-0 on home ice to Minnesota on Wednesday. They outshot the Wild 39-29 but could not solve Filip Gustavsson. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen gave his team a chance to win by making 28 saves in the Buffalo net.
Luukkonen has delivered eight of the Sabres’ 11 victories this season. He has allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his last eight starts. He has a 2.54 goals against average (GAA) and a .914% save percentage (S%) on the season.
Wednesday’s loss snapped a three-game win streak, however the Sabres are still 7-3 in their past 10 games. Since a 1-4-1 start after opening the season in Prague, Buffalo has responded by winning 10 of its last 16 games.
Tage Thompson leads the hockey club with 11 goals, while Alex Tuch is the team’s leading scorer with 21 points. Thompson returned on Wednesday with six shots on goal after missing five games with a lower-body injury. As a group, the Sabres have the fourth-highest-scoring blueline in the NHL, led by captain Rasmus Dahlin, who has 19 points. Owen Power has 15 points, and Bowen Byram has 13. Dahlin left practice early on Thursday but is expected to play against the Canucks.
According to the NHL, the Sabres are the second-youngest team, with an average age of 26.16. They have nine players on their roster born in 2000 or later.
Former Canuck Sam Lafferty’s November 7th goal against the New York Rangers is his lone point in 21 games as a Sabre. Lafferty scored the only goal in a 1-0 Vancouver win in Buffalo last season. The Canucks swept their two-game regular season series with the Sabres in 2023-24, winning 1-0 in Buffalo and 3-2 on home ice. The Sabres will visit Vancouver on January 21st.
Today’s referees: Peter MacDougall & Kendrick Nicholson
Today’s broadcasters: John Shorthouse & Dave Tomlinson
Sponsored by bet365