The Vancouver Canucks will look to build off of a big win when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
The Canucks are coming off a 3-2 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Vancouver scored three times in less than four minutes in the first period before the Oilers inched closer with a pair of goals in the second.
It was just Vancouver’s second win the past eight games (2-4-2), and the hope is the Canucks have learned their lesson from their other victory during the slump.
After skating away with a 3-0 triumph at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 11, Vancouver dropped its next two games — getting outscored by a combined 11-2 margin against the Winnipeg Jets and Los Angeles Kings.
“Great game for us (against Edmonton) but, to me, you park it,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “We’ve got another game. It’s the same thing in Toronto. Big win, and obviously we didn’t come down from it and it affected us. It’s something we should learn from.”
The Canucks sit one point behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Injuries have been a factor in Vancouver’s struggles this season, along with the reported rift between centers J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. Miller, who snapped a five-game point drought Saturday with a pair of assists, reportedly was going to be held out of the game for a potential trade before it fell through.
“At times it can be tough to block everything out,” forward Brock Boeser said. “Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes I feel it affects our team in some games. We’ve got to do our best to learn from that and make sure that we can block it out and really focus on these games, because last game was such a big win, it’s something that can spark us. … We haven’t been playing great hockey at all, and we’re still right there in a wild-card spot.”
The Sabres arrive in Vancouver looking to bounce back after a 6-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Monday. After opening the scoring, Buffalo fell behind 3-1 before forging a tie. The Sabres, however, surrendered a go-ahead goal just 56 seconds after pulling even.
“I thought most of the goals, every goal there was a lost battle,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “You’re not going to win games. You lose the net-front battle for goals, you lost below-the-goal-line battles. Almost 90 percent of their opportunities were on the hands of us not winning a battle.”
The Sabres appeared to be turning a corner after a 13-game losing streak (0-10-3), going 5-2-1 in the eight games that followed. But it has been a struggle since then, with Buffalo posting just one win in its past four games and getting outscored 17-8 in the three losses.
“I think when we’ve had success this year, we’re playing fast,” forward Jason Zucker said. “We’re a quick team, we move pucks quick, we can put teams on their heels, and we can get after them a little bit. … Ultimately, I think that’s something we’ve got to carry into (Vancouver).”
–Field Level Media
