VANCOUVER Custom Nashville Predators Jerseys , British Columbia — to the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.While a bottle of red or white might get better with age, the Canucks and Flames believe they can only get better with youth. The predominantly young clubs, who both missed the playoffs last season, will begin to test that theory Wednesday night as the Canucks host the Flames in the National Hockey League season opener for both teams.“We are really young,” Vancouver center Bo Horvat, who was named an alternate captain Tuesday, told reporters. “We know where we are at. We know what people are thinking and saying about us, that we are going to finish at the bottom of the league. But that is great motivation to prove them wrong and a chance to prove ourselves this year.”Article continues below ...Horvat is at the forefront of a Canucks squad that will try to make due without retired Swedish superstars Daniel and Henrik Sedin. And, the Canucks do have plenty to prove after going 1-6 in the preseason.The most notable — and only pure new — young addition is center Elias Pettersson, 19, the team’s 2017 first-round draft choice www.officialdevils.com , who was named the most valuable player in both the regular season and playoffs while guiding Vaxjo to the Swedish Elite League championship last season.Pettersson produced 24 goals and 32 assists in 44 games in Sweden in 2018-19. Canucks management will be ecstatic if he can come close to producing similar production in 82 NHL contests.But Pettersson, a likely rookie of the year candidate, is trying not to put too much pressure on himself after a strong preseason.“I can only control what I do in the moment and not think what’s ahead of me,” the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Pettersson told reporters. “(My game is) getting better every day.”He will be the player without NHL experience in Vancouver’s lineup Wednesday, but the Canucks will give young wingers Nikolay Goldobin, Brendan Leipsic and Tyler Motte opportunities to secure permanent jobs after placing veteran forwards Sam Gagner and Darren Archibald on waivers earlier this week.“With these (other) young kids coming (up through the farm system), this could happen more and more,” general manager Jim Benning said in reference to veterans losing their jobs.Meanwhile, the Flames will feature several new, mostly young faces against the Canucks. Calgary’s newcomers include defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Elias Lindholm New Jersey Devils T-Shirts Authentic , who were acquired in the trade that sent rearguard Dougie Hamilton and winger Michael Ferland to Carolina, and rookie forward Dillon Dube and first-year defenseman Juuso Valimaki — draft picks who both cracked the team’s roster and will be in the lineup Wednesday.“What (Dube and Valimaki) are going to face (Wednesday) is the hardest competition they’ve ever faced,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving told Postmedia. “This is a real NHL game.”Dube, 19, who hails from the Calgary-area town of Cochrane, Alta., expects that he and Valimaki will be able to handle the hard going of the NHL regular season after they captained the Canadian and Finnish world junior teams, respectively, last winter.“Especially for me being from here, there’s going to be a lot of pressure,” Dube told reporters. “You’re lucky if you get to play with pressure because it’s means you’re in a good city and organization.” TAMPA New Jersey Devils Hoodies Authentic , Fla. (AP) Nikita Kucherov reached a personal milestone and helped the Tampa Bay Lightning move closer to clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference.Kucherov became the second player in the NHL to reach 100 points this season, and the Lightning took a two-point lead in the Atlantic Division by beating the Buffalo Sabres 7-5 Friday night.Kucherov scored in the first period and got his 100th point assisting on Dan Girardi’s goal 1:04 into the second that gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead.”It’s something special,” Kucherov said. ”I’ll definitely remember it the rest of my life.”Edmonton’s Connor McDavid tops the league with 106 points. According to the NHL, this is the first season since 2009-10 with multiple 100-point players.The Lightning got two goals from Anthony Cirelli, while Yanni Gourde, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman also scored. Alex Killorn had three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots.Tampa Bay can wrap up the division title and the best record in the East with a win in its season finale Saturday night at Carolina, or a loss by second-place Boston in either of its final two games.”Is there anything else that needs to be said?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”Win a hockey game, win the division.”The Lightning played their second consecutive game without center Steven Stamkos (lower-body injury), who is expected to be back for the playoffs.Casey Mittelstadt and Alexander Nylander each got his first NHL goal for the last-place Sabres. The Elias Sports Bureau says it was first time two Buffalo players got their first goals in the same game since May 3, 1995, when Curtis Brown and Wayne Primeau accomplished the feat.Jason Pominville New Jersey Devils Hats Authentic , Jordan Nolan and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo, and Chad Johnson had 27 saves.”We made too many mistakes,” Mittelstadt said.After Girardi scored, Buffalo got goals from Pominville, Nolan and Okposo, during a power play, to go ahead 5-4 after the second period.The Lightning rallied on third-period goals 47 seconds apart by Cirelli (6:15) and Point (7:02) in taking a 6-5 advantage. Hedman added an empty-netter.”We didn’t play well in the second and came back in the third, and played the right way,” Kucherov said.Sabres center Jack Eichel called the blown lead ”frustrating.””I thought, maybe, we got a little passive Custom New Jersey Devils Jerseys ,” Eichel said.The teams combined for five goals in the opening 9:40 of the game. Gourde, who put Tampa Bay up 3-2, set team records for goals (25) and points (64) by a rookie.Cirelli and Kucherov also had first-period goals for the Lightning, while Mittelstadt, on the power play, and Nylander scored the Buffalo goals.NOTES: Gourde’s goal was his first in 14 games. … This was the 22nd time in 81 games that Buffalo (16-1-5) led after two periods.UP NEXTSabres: Close out the regular season Saturday night at Florida.Lightning: Will look to extend their franchise-record breaking road win total to 26 against the Hurricanes.