{"id":461173,"date":"2025-01-21T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T13:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=461173"},"modified":"2025-01-20T19:28:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T00:28:43","slug":"nhl-predictions-jan-21-buffalo-sabres-vs-vancouver-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/21\/nhl-predictions-jan-21-buffalo-sabres-vs-vancouver-canucks\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: Jan.21 Buffalo Sabres vs. Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, <\/span>Last Word on Hockey<\/span><\/em> looks at the scheduled games. Then, it offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today we are looking at the game between the Buffalo Sabres vs. Vancouver Canucks. Check out more NHL Predictions as the 2024-25 season continues.<\/span><\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/span><\/h3>\n

Buffalo Sabres vs. Vancouver Canucks<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Time<\/span><\/strong>: 10:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)<\/span><\/p>\n

TV<\/span><\/strong>: SNP, MSG-B<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight marks the final meeting between these two opposite conference foes. The <\/span>Buffalo Sabres<\/span><\/a> (17-24-5) will be on the second half of a back-to-back as they head into Rogers Arena to face off against the <\/span>Vancouver Canucks<\/span><\/a> (20-15-5). Vancouver beat Buffalo 4-3 in overtime at the end of November. The Sabres will be looking to even the season series tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buffalo Stuck at The Bottom<\/span><\/h3>\n

Coming off a 6-4 loss against the <\/span>Seattle Kraken<\/span><\/a> yesterday, the Buffalo Sabres have now lost two in a row and are 4-5-1 in their last ten games. This has kept the Sabres in the basement of the Eastern Conference. It won’t get any easier tonight or the rest of the week, as playing in Vancouver is only the second stop on a four-game Western road trip. To compound things even further, Buffalo has struggled on the road with a record of 8-12-2.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with most unsuccessful teams, the Sabres have been undone by weak special teams and poor goaltending. The goaltending has taken more of a hit recently as <\/span>Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/span><\/a> missed yesterday’s game with an injury.<\/span> Devon Levi<\/span><\/a> started in his place, allowing five goals. So, if Luukkonen can’t play today, it will be <\/span>James Reimer’s<\/span><\/a> net against the Canucks. As for the special teams, both units rank in the bottom third of the league. They scored a power-play goal against the Kraken but also allowed one. This combination makes it an uphill battle for the Sabres to win most nights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canucks Can’t Seem to Get on Track<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Vancouver Canucks have struggled mightily so far in January. Entering tonight’s game, they are 3-4-2 in 2025. This is on the heels of a subpar December where the Canucks only won 5 of 14 games. To make matters worse, the trade rumours surrounding their top two centremen, <\/span>Elias Pettersson<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>J.T. Miller<\/span><\/a>, won’t go away. Miller was almost traded Saturday night before their game versus the <\/span>Edmonton Oilers<\/span><\/a>. In a weird twist of fate, that game might have been one of Miller’s, and in turn, the Canucks, best performances of the season. Vancouver will likely build off of that game tonight.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other developments from the Canucks last game to keep an eye on. One was the play of <\/span>Thatcher Demko<\/span><\/a>. He collected only his third win in 10 appearances this season and his first since after the holiday break. Vancouver will hope this is a sign of wins to come for their often-injured star goalie. The other key to that win was the defense in front of Demko. The Canucks only allowed 15 shots on goal. They limited the high-flying Oilers to just three shots in the third period. However, the Canucks will be without defensemen Tyler Myers tonight after he was suspended three games for cross-checking an opponent in the Edmonton game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Canucks will undoubtedly have the rest advantage in this one. They have been off since Saturday. Meanwhile, the Sabres are playing just over 24 hours later, with travel sandwiched in between. The Canucks would seem to have an edge in most important areas tonight too. If Reimer were the starter, Vancouver would certainly hope to get a better goalie performance. They are also much more potent on special teams. The problem is you just never know which version of the Canucks is going to show up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction: Canucks win 3-1<\/span><\/p>\n

Prop Bets of The Night<\/span><\/h3>\n

With Vancouver having the advantage tonight, a Canucks same-game parlay could have a chance of hitting. The Canucks on the money line parlayed with under 5.5 total goals, and J.T. Miller as an anytime goal scorer has odds of +1039. If you want to bet on the Sabres side, <\/span>Jason Zucker<\/span><\/a> at +320 as an anytime goal scorer could be worth a look. He scored yesterday and has been getting top-line and top power play minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main photo by Timothy T. Ludwig<\/em><\/p>\n

Please play responsibly and check for local rules and age restrictions; some jurisdictions require ages 21+. <\/span>Gambling<\/span>\u00a0problem?<\/span> Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey looks at the scheduled games. Then, it offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today we are looking at the game between the Buffalo Sabres vs. Vancouver Canucks. Check out more NHL Predictions as the 2024-25 season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5347,"featured_media":461179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4524,3,4547,4548,26],"tags":[6254,6014],"class_list":["post-461173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl-predictions","category-sabres","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-canucks","tag-buffalo-sabres-predictions","tag-vancouver-canucks-predictions"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461180,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461173\/revisions\/461180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}