How Conor Garland, Quinn Hughes and Kevin Lankinen drove a gutsy Canucks win: 3 takeaways

No Filip Hronek , no problem at least for one game.

The Vancouver Canucks , in the first game without their top-flight right-shot defender and still missing J.T.

Miller and Thatcher Demko , pulled out a gritty 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday afternoon.

It didnt look pretty or convincing.

The Canucks were completely under siege in the third period where they blew a 3-1 lead.

The Sabres outshot and out-chanced the Canucks by a decisive margin.

But with so many key contributors out of the lineup, a polished, picture-perfect outing was never a realistic expectation against a rising Sabres team that had won seven of its last 10 games heading into Fridays matchup.

Advertisement Vancouver excelled on special teams, showed guts and leaned on brilliant individual performances from Kevin Lankinen , Conor Garland , Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes to continue its sparkling road record.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Lankinens excellence bails out Canucks blue line without Hronek The Canucks blue line definitely felt Hroneks absence against the Sabres.

Give Vancouvers blue line credit for blocking tons of shots and avoiding catastrophic errors, but the seams on the back end predictably showed at times, even though Tyler Myers was competent on the top pair next to Hughes.

Erik Brannstrom has come back down to Earth over the last couple of games.

Vancouver was outshot 6-0 and outscored 2-0 with him on the ice at five-on-five against Buffalo.

He was deked badly by Jack Quinn , which forced him to take a penalty in the first period.

Brannstrom still has crucial value as a third-pair puck-mover, but the hope that he can seamlessly adjust to a significantly bigger role appears to be a long shot at this point.

Last year, the Canucks were decisive and comfortable defending leads in the third period.

With Hronek out and Carson Soucy still searching for his game, the club was vulnerable against the Sabres late push.

Lankinens excellent performance he stopped 31 of 34 shots is arguably the biggest reason the Canucks came out on top.

He was calm and confident moving in his crease and didnt leave bad rebounds.

He was in the perfect position to deny Tage Thompson on three separate occasions with time and space in the slot in regulation time.

Lankinen robbed JJ Peterka in the third period off a cross-seam pass.

And before Garland scored the overtime winner, Lankinen again stole the show against Thompson.

WHAT A SAVE BY KEVIN LANKINEN! : Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/jd0A6H3OBA CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 29, 2024 The Canucks penalty kill was a perfect five-for-five against the Sabres as well.

This is where the blue line deserves credit for stepping up.

Collectively, they won battles, denied easy entries and protected the inner slot effectively.

Boesers best game since returning from injury For the most part, the Canucks were compact and stingy defensively, but sustaining offensive pressure was a major challenge through the opening 40 minutes.

Advertisement They generated virtually nothing off the rush besides a couple of against-the-grain counterattack looks.

Vancouvers forwards were fast, physical and forced Buffalos defencemen into turnovers in the first period, but the club couldnt consistently translate those sequences into legitimate scoring chances.

The Canucks forecheck slowed down in the second period, which forced them to defend for most of the middle frame and escalated the offensive dry spell.

Elias Pettersson s line was quiet to begin the game, which prompted Boeser to take Kiefer Sherwood s spot with Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk .

The adjustment paid off in a major way.

DeBrusks tying goal was a perfect example of Boesers evolution as a two-way player over the years.

The sequence started with Boesers hard work to steal the puck from Ryan McLeod in the corner and tee Pius Suter up for the initial Grade-A chance.

CANUCKS GOAL Jake DeBrusk ties the game! : Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/LQx9O4RSyX CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 29, 2024 Boeser made a perfect cross-seam pass to hit Garland for a power-play goal in the third period.

CANUCKS GOAL Conor Garland puts the Canucks up by one!! : Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/hkV6YvdU8p CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 29, 2024 This game was by far the best Boeser has looked since his concussion.

The Canucks outshot the Sabres 6-1 with him on the ice at five-on-five.

Speaking of players shaking off injury rust, Dakota Joshua showed well, too.

Joshua was anticipating the Sabres zone exits and forcing turnovers in the first period.

He had a couple of outstanding sequences defending the blue line from zone entries on the penalty kill.

He made a gorgeous backdoor pass on the power play that would have been a tap-in goal had Myers not failed to get his stick on the feed.

Advertisement Both players still have another level or two to reach but its promising for the Canucks to see signs of life from them.

How Hughes and Garland dominated Hughes logged a monster 28:31 and took the game over in overtime.

The Sabres barely touched the puck for the first half of OT as Hughes had the puck on a string and controlled the flow of play.

He nearly scored early into OT himself.

The work that he then did to draw Buffalos defenders toward him and hit Garland on the backdoor for a tap-in was outstanding.

CANUCKS GOAL CONOR GARLAND WINS THE GAME IN OVERTIME!! : Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/brHyIUr7bc CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 29, 2024 Garland, meanwhile, is off to a scorching start with 21 points in 22 games.

The way he battles to get open in the dirty areas is commendable.

And who can forget his gutsy, sliding shot block that sprung Suter for a breakaway goal? CANUCKS GOAL Conor Garland blocks a shot and that springs Pius Suter in on a breakaway and he buries it! What a sequence for the Canucks! : Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.com/sGMCAUNI7J CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 29, 2024 Vancouvers recipe for success against Buffalo (big performances from its top players, solid special teams, excellent goaltending) is the formula that this team will need to continue relying on without Hronek and Miller.

(Photo of Brock Boeser and Conor Garland: Timothy T.

Ludwig / Imagn Images).

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