(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres have put Colten Ellis on IR. He was placed in concussion protocol Tuesday after being elbowed in the head during a game in Edmonton against the Oilers.
Buffalo native Trevor Kuntar has been activated and participated in the morning skate Thursday in Vancouver. Kuntar signed with the Sabres on Wednesday.
Josh Norris was ill during pregame warm-up on Tuesday and was pulled from the lineup. He has points in all four games he played since coming back from injury scoring two goals and five assists for seven points. He’s also been minus-7 in his last three games.
They’re missing Jason Zucker who was also on a four-game points streak before getting hurt with three goals and two assists for five points. He played nine games since missing two weeks with an illness and had five goals and six assists for 11 points.
Buffalo picked up its third road victory of the season against the Oilers. They’re 3-9-2 away from home and 3-4-0 in their last seven.
With Alex Lyon coming on in relief both Monday in Calgary and Tuesday. Monday he played 17:29 in relief of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and stopped all four shots he faced. On Tuesday he played 41:32 after Ellis was injured and made 21 saves on 24 shots. He got his first win since Oct. 24 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had lost five straight games. Overall Lyon is 4-6-3 with a 3.22 goals against and .899 save percentage.
The overtime victory in Edmonton broke the team’s three-game losing streak. Their .467 points percentage is still dead last in the Eastern Conference and 29th overall.
The Sabres went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill against a team that at the time was No. 1 in the NHL. Buffalo is second at penalty killing at 86.2%. The Tampa Bay Lightning is 86.5% and the Colorado Avalanche is 86%.
The Vancouver Canucks are the worst team in the NHL with a points percentage of .417, but don’t get too comfortable with that. Buffalo has lost twice to the Calgary Flames who are 31st. The Sabres have also lost twice to the 27th ranked team the Utah Mammoth and once to the 28th ranked squad the St. Louis Blues and the 26th rated Winnipeg Jets. So against teams that are 26th or lower in the NHL, Buffalo is 1-5-1 and have been outscored 28-15.
In his last five games Rasmus Dahlin has one goal and six assists for seven points. In the last two games Tage Thompson gotten back on the scoresheet with two goals and two assists for four points. He’s had two goals disallowed in his last two games.
Josh Doan has points in 5-of-6 games scoring three goals and four assists for seven points.
Vancouver has just two wins in 10 games and three victories in 14. The team is celebrating getting goalie Thatcher Demko back. He played just 20 minutes in the last 16 games. He’s 5-4-0 with 2.80 goals against .903 save percentage. That might explain why the Canucks are last in the league in goals against.
Vancouver has won 4-of-5 vs Buffalo
Elias Pettersson is one of their leading scorers with just 22 points in 28 games. Petersson has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury while Nils Hoglander played his first game of the season Monday. Filip Chytil has been out since Oct. 21 with an upper-body injury and Teddy Blueger has been out for all but two games this season with a lower-body injury.
Defenseman and captain Quinn Hughes also has 22 points in 25 games.
Join Brian Koziol and me at 9:00 for the pregame.