NHL Hockey Betting: Vancouver Canucks at Buffalo Sabres

Two of the more enigmatic teams in the NHL will go at it on Sunday afternoon as the Vancouver Canucks head East to take on the Buffalo Sabres. The Canucks have been up and down all season long. A big part of the reason for their erratic play is their home/away dichotomy. The Canucks have been *excellent* at home with a record of 17-8-3. Only three teams in the West have 18 home wins (Chicago, Minnesota and San Jose) meaning that the Canucks aren’t far off the pace of the best teams in the conference. The problem is that they have to leave British Columbia for half of their games. On the road, Vancouver is 7-17-3 which puts them one point ahead of the Arizona Coyotes for the worst road record in the NHL.

Buffalo is more consistent in their mediocrity but to be fair they’ve had a *ton* of injuries this season. The Sabres are 23-22-10 with a 13-9-4 record at home and a 10-13-6 record on the road. They’re 5-4-1 in their last ten games and enter this matchup coming off a 3-1 road win over Toronto on Saturday night. At one point–maybe back when dinosaurs named ‘Sittler’ and ‘Perault’ roamed the earth–the Sabres and Leafs had a fairly contentious rivalry. Last night’s win might make this a ‘letdown spot’ for the Sabres. The Sabres and Leafs had split their previous 10 meetings entering last night’s game but Buffalo had won only once in their last five at Toronto.

Going strictly off the power ratings this looks like a fairly even matchup which–in theory at least–makes the Canucks at a ‘plus money’ price look very interesting. Both teams are coming in off a Saturday game with Buffalo’s likely being more significant of an emotional drain. The Canucks brutal road record is the ‘elephant in the room’ when it comes to handicapping this matchup. Then again, they’re capable of big performances away from home like last Thursday’s 3-0 win at Columbus. Sabres’ Jack Eichel is already one of the most dangerous goal scorers in the game but although he’s finally healthy there’s a number of key contributors that aren’t. We’ll take the Canucks at a plus money price here.

BET VANCOUVER CANUCKS +130 OVER BUFFALO SABRES