Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin left practice early on Thanksgiving. Head coach Lindy Ruff says it was considered "just a little bit of maintenance."
"I don’t believe it’ll affect him [for Friday’s game], but you never know until tomorrow," said Ruff following Thursday's practice.
JJ Peterka has seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 19 games this season. Over 82 games, that would give him 29 goals and 37 assists for 66 points.
The problem is lately, it hasn’t gone near as well for him. Peterka has no points in his last four games, no goals in his last six, and one goal in his last nine games.
Ruff seems to know why his winger has been struggling as of late.
"I think there’s more to JJ’s game, and I think he believes that too," Ruff said. "I’ve had conversations with him, and at the start of the year, he was around the net more, tighter into the net. I mean, he’s getting some chances, but those chances are further out. The opportunities you get in that 10-foot range around the net, maybe tipping a puck, he has to get in on more of those. He’s seen some video, and I’ve had some discussions with him about where he needs to get sometimes, but he believes his game needs to be better too."
Buffalo comes out of Thanksgiving out of the playoffs. Buffalo is two points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division with two games in-hand. They’re also two points behind the New York Rangers for the No. 1 Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, and one point back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second Wild Card spot.
The Sabres have played one more game than both of the Rangers and Lightning.
Despite putting 87 shots attempts towards Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson on Wednesday, they wasted a great game by their own goalie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. It was another example of points were right there for this team, but they couldn’t get the game to overtime in a 1-0 loss.
If you take away the Montreal Canadiens game, in which Luukkonen tried to play hurt and left after 40 minutes of play, Luukkonen has stopped 182-of-191 shots for a save percentage of .953. He did have his personal five-game winning streak snapped against the Wild.
Buffalo is still 7-3-0 in its last 10 games, which is .700 and fourth in the NHL during that time.
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The Vancouver Canucks lost in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to the Penguins, but are still 8-2-0 on the road.
This is a team that hasn’t played as well recently, going 4-4-0.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko had a breakout season last year, but he’s missed all of this season with a knee injury. General Manager Patrik Allvin told Sportsnet this week that the goaltender is close to being a game-time decision.
To fill the hole in net, Vancouver signed Kevin Lankinen in September. The 29-year-old had played for the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks without much success, but this season, he’s 10-3-2 with a 2.56 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
Ruff knows what to expect from this team come Friday afternoon.
"They’ve really gone well on the road, and they’re a lot like us, where they have some mobile defensemen, they’ve got lines that gives them depth in their scoring, and they defend hard," Ruff said.
Vancouver is without J.T. Miller, who has left the team for personal reasons.
When the Sabres selected Dahlin first overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, he was supposed to be the elite guy that would become one of the top-two or three defensemen in the NHL. It hasn’t even come close to working out that way.
Vancouver took Quinn Hughes seventh overall that draft year, and if you were to do a redraft today, the defenseman would easily be the No. 1 overall pick.
Last year’s Norris Trophy winner is one of the top-two or three defensemen in the NHL, and has 48 goals and 308 assists for 356 points in 386 games. In 458 games, Dahlin has 72 goals and 239 assists for 311 points.
Dahlin wouldn’t even be the second overall pick, as Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk is also part of that draft class.
Hughes leads the Canucks in scoring with five goals and 18 assists for 23 points in 21 games. Dahlin is Buffalo’s second-leading scorer with six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 22 games.
Vancouver is 10th overall in the NHL with a points percentage of .595, while Buffalo is 17th at .523.
Sam Lafferty spent last season playing for the Canucks, where he had 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points. He says he got a lot out of his one season out West.
"It got off to a really hot start. I went there the day before the season, and really didn’t know what to expect. But everything clicked for me individually and as a team, and had a lot of success," said Lafferty on Thursday. "It could’ve gone either way in the playoffs, but overall, an awesome experience."
Vancouver won their first round series against the Nashville Predators in six games, 4-2, but then lost in seven games to the eventual Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers.
Join Brian Koziol on Friday for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 2 p.m. EST, when you’ll hear from Ruff, Lafferty and Jiri Kulich.