Sabres at Canucks preview

SABRES (13-11-5) at CANUCKS (14-11-4)
4 p.m. ET; SN, MSG-B, NHL.TV

Eichel has 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) during his point streak and is two away from 300 in the NHL for Buffalo, which is 2-1-2 in its past five games after going 2-8-1 in its previous 11.
Forwards Jay Beagle (lower body), Brandon Sutter (groin) and Micheal Ferland (concussion) took part in practice Friday and could return for Vancouver, which has won two of its past three games.

Players to watch

Sabres forward Victor Olofsson has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past nine games.
Canucks forward J.T. Miller has nine points (four goals, five assists) in a seven-game point streak.

They said it

"Simplicity above all and allow the skill and the talent to take over if we create some chaos. That's what we've been unable to do of late."-- Sabres coach Ralph Krueger on the power play, which is 3-for-47 (6.4 percent) since Nov. 1
"Talked to our players after practice and (will) evaluate them tomorrow as well. I expect maybe one, two, maybe three new guys in the lineup." -- Canucks coach Travis Green on Beagle, Sutter and Ferland

Sabres projected lineup

Victor Olofsson -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Jeff Skinner -- Marcus Johansson -- Rasmus Asplund
Jimmy Vesey -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Conor Sheary
Zemgus Girgensons -- Johan Larsson -- Kyle Okposo
Brandon Montour -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella -- Henri Jokiharju
Colin Miller -- Zach Bogosian
Linus Ullmark
Carter Hutton
Scratched:Jake McCabe, Evan Rodrigues
Injured:Rasmus Dahlin (concussion), Tage Thompson (upper body), Vladimir Sobotka (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Josh Leivo
Antoine Roussel -- Adam Gaudette -- Jake Virtanen
Tim Schaller -- Jay Beagle -- Micheal Ferland
Jordie Benn -- Chris Tanev
Quinn Hughes -- Tyler Myers
Oscar Fantenberg -- Troy Stecher
Thatcher Demko
Michael DiPietro
Scratched:Zack MacEwen, Loui Eriksson, Jacob Markstrom
Injured: Alexander Edler (upper body), Tyler Graovac (lower body), Tyler Motte (upper body), Brandon Sutter (groin)

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Status report

Rodrigues (lower body) and Okposo (concussion) could each return from injury. … Buffalo dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen in a 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames on Thursday, but Krueger said he was leaning toward using 12 forwards and six defensemen against Vancouver. … The Canucks sent forward Nikolay Goldobin to Utica of the American Hockey League on Friday. … Markstrom left the team to attend his father's funeral in Sweden.

Stat pack

Reinhart, who is from West Vancouver, British Columbia, has scored in each of his past three games against the Canucks and has four points (three goals, one assist) in that span. … Gaudette has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past four games. … Pettersson is two points from 100 in the NHL.