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Can the Sabres slow the Pettersson Express? Thompson in, Girgensons out

November 10, 2018, 12:36 PM ET [368 Comments]

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He's a bad man.

Vancouver Canucks rookie forward Elias Pettersson is on a tear to start the season. The 19 yr. old (soon to be 20 on November 12) native of Sundsvall, Sweden has started the season with 10 goals and 17 points in his first 11 games and has lead the upstart Canucks to the top of the Western conference's Pacific division.

While many may have thought this would be a rebuilding (maybe retooling) season for the 'Nucks, Vancouver is off to a 10-6-1 start with Pettersson and center Bo Horvath (nine goals) leading them to eighth in the league in goals-for (3.29/game.) Add in some help from defenseman Jake Virtanen's six goals and a host of others contributing to Vancouver's offense and you have a pretty stiff challenge for the Buffalo Sabres this afternoon.

Buffalo is coming off of a thrilling 6-5 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. Forward Jeff Skinner scored two goals (with is 11 total goals placing him tied for fifth in the league right now,) Vladimir Sobotka scored two goals and defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen potted his second goal of the season with a blistering game-winner from the left faceoff circle in overtime.

After a rough 10+ games, the Sabres in the goal-scoring department, are beginning to get some secondary scoring as head coach Phil Housley seems to have found some chemistry on the second and third lines. Housley put rookie Casey Mittelstadt between LW, Conor Sheary and veteran right-winger Kyle Okposo while on the other line he has Evan Rodrigues between Sobotka and Sam Reinhart.

It would seem as if it took a while but Housley's beginning to figure out where his players play their best hockey. Similar to last season when tried to fit Reinhart in the middle before moving him to the wing where he eventually caught fire, the second-year coach was misfiring with Rodrugues as well. On opening night Housley had Rodrigues centering LW, Zemgus Girgensons and RW, Jason Pominville. When he blew up his lines forming the extremely potent Jack Eichel-Skinner-Pominville top line, he moved Rodrigues to the wing on the third line.

In the middle of all this, Rodrigues took a personal leave for the birth of his first child and when he came back ready after one game, he sat for two more games in favor of Tage Thompson. The team proceeded to go 0-2-1 with that set-up. Rodrigues came back into the lineup and although he has yet to score his first goal of the season, the team is 2-1-0 since his return. Housley moved him back to center last game and he set up Sobotka for the Sabres first two goals of the game. “I just felt that Evan did a really good job previously when he was with Zemgus and Pominville,” Housley said to the media. “I think that was our most consistent line, he was in the middle.”

There will be no movement for Rodrigues as he will continue to center Sobotka and Reinhart tonight, but Housley is sitting another player as he tries to get the 21 yr. old, waiver-exempt Thompson some ice-time. Housley told the gathered media today, "It's just a matter of trying to get Tage in, trying to get him some games now. You don't want to sit him out too long."

The odd-man out is Girgensons who was the only constant on a fourth line that Housley has called his most consistent, and at times best, line on two separate occasions--once with the line mentioned above early in the season and lately with Johan Larsson and Patrik Berglund on it.

Girgensons has a goal and four assists while playing a defensive/checking role and has an even plus/minus rating. He has also been a constant on the Sabres top penalty kill unit which is 16th in the league with an 80% kill rate. The Canucks powerplay unit ranks 13th in the league with at 21.1% conversion rate.

Both incarnations of the line Girgensons was on have shown the propensity for a hard forecheck and plenty of offensive zone time. Although they've had their moments both as individuals and as a line, and have yet to contribute much scoring, most in Sabreland have liked what they've been able to do. How Thompson fits into a fourth-line checking role, and whether or not he'll be able to contribute offensively (despite no goals in nine games so far while playing top-six minutes with powerplay time earlier in the season) will be interesting to see.

Carter Hutton looks to be Buffalo's starting goalie for their 1 pm matinee.
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