Probable lineups for Sabres vs. Canucks

The Buffalo Sabres will have to continue their stingy play without one of their best shutdown defenders, as Robyn Regehr won’t play Saturday night in Vancouver after suffering a lower-body injury during Thursday's 1-0 win in San Jose.

Regehr is listed as day-to-day as the Sabres try to extend their shutout streak to three games after also blanking Anaheim 2-0 on Wednesday. Alexander Sulzer, who came to Buffalo with Cody Hodgson as part of the four-player trade that sent Zack Kassian and Marc-Andre Gragnani to Vancouver on Monday's Trade Deadline day, will make his Sabres debut against his old team in Regehr’s place.

Here are the  anticipated lineups as the 29-27-8 Sabres try to close the four-point gap on the last Stanley Cup Playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and the 41-16-8 Canucks try to increase their narrow lead atop the entire NHL:

CANUCKS

No changes for a Canucks team that is 16-1-3 during the past 19 games and settling into a seven-game home stand that started with a tight 2-0 win Thursday night against the equally hot St. Louis Blues:

Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Alexandre Burrows

Mason Raymond – Ryan Kesler – David Booth

Chris Higgins – Samuel Pahlsson – Jannik Hansen

Manny Malhotra – Maxim Lapierre – Zack Kassian

 

Dan Hamhuis – Kevin Bieksa

Alexander Edler – Sami Salo

Marc-Andre Gragnani – Aaron Rome

 

Roberto Luongo
Cory Schneider

 

SABRES

Other than the switch on defense to replace the injured Regerh with Sulzer, the Sabres will also maintain the status quo as they try to continue a 5-0-2 run the past seven games and 10-3-3 stretch the past 16 to get into the Stanley Cup Playoff race:

Thomas Vanek - Derek Roy - Jason Pominville

Tyler Ennis - Cody Hodgson - Drew Stafford

Nathan Gerbe - Ville Leino - Patrick Kaleta

Matt Ellis - Brad Boyes - Corey Tropp

 

Jordan Leopold - Tyler Myers

Alexander Sulzer - Christian Ehrhoff

Andrej Sekera - Mike Weber

Ryan Miller
Jhonas Enroth

Miller, who stopped al 82 shots in California, will make his eighth-straight start appearance and 19th consecutive appearance in goal. He relieved backup Jhonas Enroth on Feb. 16 and hasn’t had a full game off since Jan. 18. But after a slow start to the season is looking more like the Vezina Trophy winner from two seasons ago behind a Buffalo team that hasn’t given up more than two goals in regulation during the past six, and just seven goals overall during that stretch.