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1) Thatcher Demko had waited for his moment and on Friday night it arrived. In his season debut and just his second NHL game, the 23-year-old netminder was sensational making 36 saves and backstopping the Canucks to a 4-3 win over Buffalo. Demko closed the door in the third period stopping all 16 Sabres shots he faced. His best saves were off a Vladimir Sobotka rebound five minutes into the final period with the scored tied 3-3 and off a Rasmus Dahlin howler on a Buffalo power play at 4-3 with five minutes remaining. Demko looked poised and polished throughout the contest and improved to 2-0 in his young NHL career. For a guy who hadn't seen game action anywhere since an American League game on January 2nd, he showed no rust holding down the fort as the Canucks surrendered the first seven shots of the hockey game. He made a remarkable reactionary save off 30-goal man Jeff Skinner on an early second period power play and just seemed to gain confidence as the night went along. The result was one thing, but the performance was another. With the Canucks schedule picking up after the All-Star break, the Canucks will need Demko and on Friday he looked every bit the part of a guy the team can turn to without hesitation next month. He was the game's first star and he earned it with a terrific showing.

 

2) If Bo Horvat was feeling the effects of going 10 games without a goal, he didn't show it on Friday night. Playing through a slump and coming off a game in which he suffered a charley horse, Horvat was his pre-Christmas self against the Sabres. While he didn't score, he did everything else to help his hockey club. He set up two of the team's first three goals and played a pivotal role in the other driving hard to the net and taking a Buffalo defender with him allowing Sven Baertschi to convert a Derrick Pouliot centering feed that gave the Canucks their first lead of the night. Horvat had just one shot on goal -- and he's now gone 11 games without scoring a goal -- but he was the offensive engine on a team that didn't have everyone going on the night. Horvat won 14 of his first 16 face-offs and through two periods of play was the only Canuck centre with more than two face-off wins. He finished the night 17 & 7 winning half of the team's 34 draws on the night. Horvat's second assist of the game -- a pretty set-up for an easy Brock Boeser tap-in -- was the 200th point of his NHL career. In 344 games as a Canuck, Horvat now has 88 goals and 112 assists. If he plays like he did on Friday, the goals will come. 

 

3) Josh Leivo made a splash scoring on his first shot as a Canuck after being acquired from Toronto in early December. He added a few more goals shortly thereafter as a result of a handful of fortunate bounces. Then the winger sort of settled in and like many Canucks went through a scoring lull around Christmas. He missed three games recently with back spasms but returned to the line-up last Sunday against Florida, but had gone seven games without hitting the scoresheet. That changed on Friday as Leivo did some excellent work down low in the Buffalo zone and found Loui Eriksson in front for what turned out to be the game-winning goal six minutes into the third period. Moments later, Leivo hopped on a loose puck inside the Sabres line and went in alone on Linus Ullmark with a chance to extend the lead to 5-3. Unfortunately for Leivo, the Sabres netminder came out on top in that exchange, but it was the Canucks who held on for the victory. Leivo led all players in the game with six shots on goal and nine attempts. He played primarily on the right side with Markus Granlund and TIm Schaller, but also swapped out with Sven Baertschi at times and saw shifts on the left side with Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser. On the night, Leivo led all Canucks in corsi for at 60% and looked the part of a guy who can help this hockey club in a top nine role moving forward.

 

4) It was interesting to note that from the opening face-off Friday, Travis Green elected to give Jay Beagle -- and not Brandon Sutter -- the primary shutdown role against Sabres captain and scoring leader Jack Eichel. When Beagle signed last summer, it was believed he was being brought in to aid Sutter in defensive situations not replace him. But on Friday, Beagle was Eichel's shadow while Sutter and his linemates Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen spent much of their night up against rookie Casey Mittelstadt's line. It was a rough go for that Canucks trio with the Sabres controlling 70% of the shot attempts at even-strength when they were on the ice. For Sutter, the scoring chances favoured Buffalo 13-2 according to naturalstattrick.com, while they were 11-2 with Roussel on the ice and 9-2 when Virtanen was out there. Sutter was on for two of Buffalo's goals while the other two were on for one each. That line combined for just one shot on goal on the night (for what it's worth it belonged to Sutter) and only four attempts. WIth Elias Pettersson set to return, the Canucks will have Pettersson and Horvat in offensive roles and if Beagle has become the shutdown centre of choice, what role does that leave for Brandon Sutter? He remains a key penalty killer and led all Canuck forwards with 2:43 of short-handed ice time, but when Pettersson is back he's going to command his share of ice as will Horvat. It's going to be interesting to watch how the bottom two centres are utilized especially if Sutter has more nights like he did on Friday.

 

5) Rather remarkably, the Canucks are above the playoff bar in the West. On the night of December 5th, the Canucks were 11-16-3 and seemingly buried -- sitting in 12th in the 15-team Western Conference. Since then, however, they are 11-5-3 and are now 2-0-2 on this four game homestand with two games to go before the All-Star break. With a record of 22-21-6 on the season, they have reached the 50 point mark and will spend the night with a grip on the second wild card spot. At 50 points, the Canucks are tied with the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars and since that date in early December have made up 12 points on the Avs in the standings and 11 points on the not so mighty Anaheim Ducks. The Canucks grasp on a playoff spot is tenuous as they've played more hockey than everybody in the mix, but for one night at least they can say they have possession of a post-season position and for a team that had a stretch of 1-10-2 hockey in November, that alone, is an accomplishment that few could truthfully say they saw coming.