If you're one of the types of Canucks fans who just wants to see them win, and don't have the stomach for a tank (no judgement!), you must be thrilled that they're on the road for the next six games, starting with the ridiculously hot Buffalo Sabres (and yes, that does look really odd).

Vancouver Canucks (16-20-5) vs. Buffalo Sabres (21-15-4)

Keybank Centre, Buffalo, NY

4:00 pm PST; 7:00 pm EST

TV: Sportsnet Pacific

Radio: Sportsnet 650

Before we get started, I feel like it would be wrong to not point out how the NHL's schedulers did it to the Canucks once again. This road trip, starting tonight in Buffalo, then heads west to Detroit, before going back to Toronto on Saturday. You know, the Toronto that's right near Buffalo. It's not a huge amount, but all those extra miles add up over the course of the season.

There honestly wasn't a lot to complain about with Saturday's loss. It was the back end of a back to back, against a very well rested team, and they managed to get a point out of it, and if not for a mistake in the last minute, could well have been heading to a shootout again, where they likely would have come out on top again. Still, for all you tank aficionados out there, they managed to stay close to the Jets for last place. And isn't that the real victory?

The Canucks dropped a 3-2 decision when these teams met in Vancouver on Dec 11th, and would very much like to kick off another successful road trip like their last one with a win against a team that had just rattled off 10 straight wins before losing to Columbus the other night. To say this run the Sabres are on is a surprise might be understating things by a lot, especially given they fired their GM in the middle of it, but I do feel happy for Sabres fans, who have endured even more garbage from their team than we have.

While it can still all go sideways for them, this win streak has them in the mix and giving the team and fan base hope for the first time in ages, and that's got to feel good. And that sets them up for a unique situation in a month or so: the chance to be buyers and not sellers, at the trade deadline.

For the Canucks, they'll start the trip with Conor Garland still on the injured list, but there's some good news on the injury front, as Filip Chytil has made the trip with the team, and should be cleared to return to the lineup at some point on this six game swing.

LINEUPS

From the nhl dot com thingy, here's what you can expect to see this afternoon...

Canucks projected lineup

Jake DeBrusk -- Elias Pettersson -- Linus Karlsson

Evander Kane -- Max Sasson -- Brock Boeser

Drew O'Connor -- David Kampf -- Kiefer Sherwood

Liam Ohgren -- Aatu Raty -- Nils Hoglander

Marcus Pettersson -- Tom Willander

Zeev Buium -- Filip Hronek

Pierre-Olivier Joseph -- Tyler Myers

Thatcher Demko

Kevin Lankinen

Scratched: Elias Pettersson, Arshdeep Bains

Injured: Conor Garland (upper body), Marco Rossi (lower body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)

Sabres projected lineup

Peyton Krebs -- Tage Thompson -- Josh Doan

Jason Zucker -- Josh Norris -- Alex Tuch

Zach Benson -- Ryan McLeod -- Jack Quinn

Jordan Greenway -- Noah Ostlund -- Beck Malenstyn

Mattias Samuelsson -- Rasmus Dahlin

Bowen Byram -- Owen Power

Jacob Bryson -- Zach Metsa

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Colten Ellis

Scratched: Josh Dunne, Tyson Kozak

Injured: Michael Kesselring (lower body), Alex Lyon (lower body), Conor Timmins (broken leg), Jiri Kulich (blood clot), Justin Danforth (lower body)

Apart from PO Joseph in and D Elias Pettersson back out, there's no changes from Saturday night's loss to the Bruins.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Some sad news in the Canadian metal news with the passing of Mike 'M-Bro' Embro, the original drummer of RAZOR, late last week. Embro was featured on the first four albums by the band, most notably the debut 'Evil Invaders', which featured a video for the title track that turned the Canadian metal scene on it's head in 1985 thanks to airplay on Muchmusic. Here's that video for you. RIP M-Bro.

Enjoy the game, folks. Fuck fascists, and fuck Trump. Go Canucks Tank!