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Vancouver Canucks Game Day: March 23 vs. Buffalo Sabres, Henrik Celebrated |
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Vancouver Canucks vs. Buffalo Sabres - Sunday March 23 - 5:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Bell TV, MSG-B
Vancouver Canucks - 32-30-10 - 74 points - 10th in Western Conference
Buffalo Sabres - 20 - 42 - 8 - 48 points - 16th in Eastern Conference
The Vancouver Canucks will try once again to string together two wins in a row when the Buffalo Sabres come to town for a Sunday afternoon matchup.
The Sabres have been at the bottom of the league all year, and their fortunes have only gotten worse since star goaltender Ryan Miller was traded just before the deadline. Since Miller left for St. Louis, the team is 3-8-0. Buffalo has won just eight road games all season, a league low, though they're coming off a 3-1 win in Edmonton last Thursday.
Since trading Miller, both Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth have gone down with injuries, so rookie netminder Nathan Lieuwen will be getting just his second NHL start. The 22-year-old Abbotsford native started the Sabres' 3-1 loss to Calgary last Tuesday.
The Sabres will also be missing several other key members of their lineup. New acquisition Chris Stewart is sidelined with a high ankle sprain, while Tyler Myers, ex-Canuck Alexander Sulzer and Zemgus Girgensons will also be out of the lineup.
Let's check in on two more ex-Canucks, Cody Hodgson and Christian Ehrhoff:
Hodgson will be playing in his 200th NHL game tonight. He's second in Buffalo scoring with 16-20-36 in 60 games, and boasts the worst plus-minus among the team's forwards, at minus-24. Apparently those holes in his defensive game haven't magically disappeared.
For the record, Zack Kassian is 11-8-19 in 63 games, and is a minus-10, but he doesn't enjoy nearly the same ice time. Hodgson plays an average of 18:08 a game and seven of his goals have come on the power play, while Zack averages 12:34, with one power play goal.
Kassian has one game-winner this season, while Hodgson has none.
Two years after the trade, neither player has really blossomed into the top-liner that their teams hoped they might become. Hodgson's the same age as Jamie Benn, while Kassian's a year younger, so the youth and development excuses are starting to wear a little bit thin.
Meanwhile, Christian Ehrhoff is the Sabres' top-scoring defenseman, with 6-24-30 and a minus-16. His numbers are pretty similar to Vancouver's most productive blueliner, Jason Garrison, who's 7-25-32 and a minus-seven. Though Ehrhoff seemed determined not to re-sign in Vancouver when his contract came up after the 2011 season, I feel like his departure started the Canucks' boulder of doom rolling down the hill. He enjoyed the two most productive seasons of his career here in Vancouver, with 14 goals each year, and was a critical member of the power play. Without his point shot, the team has struggled with the man advantage ever since.
The last time Buffalo came to town was on March 3, 2012, just after the Hodgson/Kassian trade. The Canucks lost 5-3, with Ehrhoff scoring the winning goal, after the Sabres chased Roberto Luongo when he gave up three goals on seven shots in the first 5:10 of the game.
David Booth had two goals for Vancouver in the game and Kassian added the third, while Hodgson was pointless.
As for the Canucks, it sounds like Daniel Sedin will certainly return, while Ryan Kesler could also draw back into the lineup. Alex Burrows is definitely out. Here's Torts from Saturday's practice—he also talks a fair amount about Zack Kassian but continues to be stingy with his praise despite a good game from that line against Nashville:
Henrik Celebrates 1,000:
It will be nice for Henrik to have his brother alongside as he's celebrated for reaching the 1,000-game plateau in his NHL career. Of course, that actually happened 11 days ago in Winnipeg and when the day arrived, the Canucks belatedly announced that they'd hold a ceremony for him tonight—couldn't happen on the first game back from the trip because the telethon was already slotted in.
Considering that Henrik's the team captain, only the 48th player in NHL history to play his first thousand games with the same team and one of very few non-North Americans to do it on a Canadian team, I feel like he hasn't been lauded enough yet for this achievement. I will never forget when the Canucks rolled out a brand new boat for Ryan Walter when he played his 1,000th NHL game in the early 90s—and most of his production came earlier in his career, with other teams.
The game presentation team has done a terrific job with recent ceremonies like Pavel Bure's jersey retirement. Hopefully Henrik gets a good gift and they put together a nice feel-good package that he deserves and that will set another positive mood in the arena for tonight's game.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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