The Vancouver Canucks begin the longest road trip of their season on Tuesday night with a game against the Buffalo Sabres, a team that has seen its rankings rise in recent weeks.
Vancouver comes into the match having played some close games, with three of the last four games requiring overtime.
The Canucks will look to maintain their strong five-on-five play as they take on a Sabers team that recently snapped a 10-game winning streak with a loss to Columbus.
A bright spot for Vancouver is the newly formed forward line of Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson.
In just over 18 minutes of combined ice time, the trio has controlled nearly 80 percent of shot attempts and has yet to create a scoring opportunity.
“Yeah, we’re just trying to connect,” Pettersson said.
“All three of us are coming through the neutral zone with speed. So it’s not one guy coming with speed and two guys standing still on the far blue line. It’s easy to play with them, and I’m just trying to do my part.”
Buffalo comes into the game with a 21-15 4 record, strong penalty kill numbers and plenty of offensive talent led by Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin.
“They were hot. They’re a desperate team. They’ve got a lot of skill and a lot of speed. I feel like when you play Buffalo it can be a track game, and they’re really good at that,” Canucks defenseman Marcus Pettersson said.
“We have to keep the game simple and force them to defend low.”
Tuesday’s game starts at 4:00 PM PT.
