GAME-DAY RESOURCES
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LAST GAME
Saturday, February 2
Buffalo 1 at Montreal 6
Goals: Vanek
Goalie: Miller (17 saves/21 shots), Enroth (9 saves/11 shots)
PP: 0/6; PK: 6/8; Shots: Montreal 32 – Buffalo 31
CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 23)
Ville Leino (lower body, Jan. 20; injured reserve) – 8 games
Robyn Regehr (lower body, Jan. 27; injured reserve) – 3 games
Patrick Kaleta (neck, Jan. 31) – 2 games
TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
2/2 Activated C Cody McCormick from IR; Placed D Robyn Regehr on IR
UPCOMING GAMES
Tuesday, Feb. 5 Buffalo at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 7 Montreal at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 9 Buffalo at NY Islanders, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 10 Boston at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 12 Buffalo at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
TODAY’S GAME
PANTHERS at SABRES
-This is the first of three meetings between the Sabres and Panthers this season.
-Last meeting: Florida defeated Buffalo, 3-2 (OT), in Florida on March 17, 2012.
-The teams next meet on Thursday, Feb. 28 in Florida.
-The Sabres are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Panthers; 6-4-0 on the road.
-This is the 73rd game all-time between Buffalo and Florida; Buffalo leads the series with a 42-25-5 record. Buffalo is 24-10-3 at home against the Panthers all-time.
THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY
- The Sabres are 6-10-2 all-time on Feb. 3. Their last win on this date was a 4-2 victory vs. OTT on Feb. 3, 2000.
- Feb. 3, 1993: Traded Dave Andreychuk, Daren Puppa and the team’s first-round draft choice in 1993 (Kenny Jonsson) to Toronto for Grant Fuhr and the Maple Leafs’ fifth-round pick in the 1995 Entry Draft (Kevin Popp).
STORYLINES
- The Sabres will look to avoid losing three consecutive home games for the first time since going 0-2-1 from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17, 2012. The team finished last season with an 8-2-0 record in their last 10 home games.
- Today is Buffalo’s third Sunday afternoon game of the season (1-1-0 in first two). The Sabres will play 11 Sunday games and nine afternoon games this season, up from one Sunday game and four afternoon games last season.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Today is Cody Hodgson’s 100th career game… Buffalo ranks first in the league on the power play at home (5-for-11)… Marcus Foligno is currently on a four-game point streak (1+4); his longest career point streak was five games, from March 10 to March 19, 2012 (5+2)… Thomas Vanek was named the NHL’s Third Star of the Month for the month of January.
HOW THEY STACK UP (Sabres ranked in the top 10 after yesterday’s game)
Thomas Vanek: 16 points (1st), 7 goals (2nd), 9 assists (T-3rd), 3 power play goals (T-3rd), 1 shorthanded goal (T-1st), 32 shots (T-5th)
Jason Pominville: 5 goals (T-4th), 12 points (T-6th)
Christian Ehrhoff: 5 assists (T-6th, defensemen)
VANEK ATTACK
With his second five-point game of the season on Thursday at BOS, Thomas Vanek became the first Sabres player to record two five-point games in a season since 1992-93, when Pat LaFontaine had six and Alexander Mogilny had three. Dating back to last season, Vanek has 27 points (9+18) in his last 17 games.
LET’S PLAY TWO
Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s third of nine sets of back-to-back games this season after the team had a league-high 21 sets last season. Buffalo dropped the first game yesterday in a 6-1 loss at MTL. The Sabres are 1-2-0 in the first game and 1-1-0 in the second. Buffalo’s point breakdown in back-to-back sets is as follows: four points (1), three points (0), two points (0), one point (0) and zero points (1).
A FRESH FACE
Sabres 2012 first-round pick Mikhail Grigorenko scored his first NHL goal on Tuesday vs. TOR, becoming the fifth-youngest player in franchise history to score a goal (18 years, 258 days). The four younger scorers were Pierre Turgeon (18 years, 54 days on 10/21/87), Adam Creighton (18 years, 199 days on 12/18/83), Phil Housley (18 years, 221 days on 10/16/82) and Mike Moller (18 years, 243 days on 2/14/81). Grigorenko followed the performance up by picking up his first career assist Thursday at BOS.
DYNAMIC DUO
Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville have each recorded a point on the same goal nine times this season, tying for second-most by an NHL duo this season after yesterday’s game. They were the seventh-most prolific pair last season, combining on 39 goals.
LINDY’S LONGEVITY
Since Lindy Ruff was named Buffalo’s head coach on July 21, 1997, there have been 170 coaching changes in the NHL. Ruff is the second-longest tenured coach in the four major professional sports leagues. Only Gregg Popovich, who began coaching the San Antonio Spurs in 1996, has been head coach of his team longer. Ruff has 568 wins as head coach of the Sabres, second-most by a head coach with a single franchise, trailing only Al Arbour (740). Ruff has more wins than any other coach with his first NHL team.
2012-13 ROSTER NOTES
Of the 23 players on Buffalo’s opening night roster:
*13 were originally drafted by the Sabres — five were first-round Buffalo selections (Vanek, 2003; Stafford, 2004; Myers and Ennis, 2008; Grigorenko, 2012)
*Six were acquired in trades: Hecht, Regehr, Ehrhoff, Hodgson, Sulzer, Ott
*Three were signed as free agents: Leopold, Leino, Scott
*One was acquired from waivers: Ellis
*20 played in Buffalo at some point last season
*Three are new to the Sabres this season: Mikhail Grigorenko was selected by the Sabres 12th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft; Scott signed as a UFA on July 1 after spending last season with the Rangers and Blackhawks; Ott was acquired in a trade with Dallas on July 2 after spending eight seasons with the Stars.
*Three players (Brennan, Foligno and Grigorenko) opened the season on an NHL roster for the first time in their careers.
BUF-FLA CONNECTIONS
BUF HC Lindy Ruff began his NHL coaching career with Florida in 1993-94. Ruff spent four seasons (1993-94 – 1996-97) with the Panthers, including the team’s 1996-97 run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
BUF D Jordan Leopold played with the Panthers for the 2009-10 season. As a Panther, Leopold played in 61 games and notched 18 points (7+11).
BUF D Alexander Sulzer played with the Panthers during the 2010-11 season. While in Florida, Sulzer played in nine games and recorded one point (0+1).
BUF Assistant Coach Kevyn Adams played for Florida during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. He played in 56 games and tallied 21 points (7+14) during the two seasons.
Drafted by the Sabres in the sixth round of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, FLA D Brian Campbell played in Buffalo for parts of eight seasons (1999-00 – 2007-08). As a Sabre, Campbell tallied 176 points (32+144) in 391 games. Campbell was selected as an NHL All-Star in 2007 and 2008.
BUF D Christian Ehrhoff and FLA C Marcel Goc played together for four seasons on the San Jose Sharks from 2005-2009.
Goc also played with BUF C Jochen Hecht and BUF D Christian Ehrhoff on the German Olympic Team. Hecht and Ehrhoff represented Germany at the 2002 Winter Games, while Goc joined the two for the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games.
BUF G Ryan Miller and FLA D Mike Weaver played together for one season at Michigan State University.
Kopecky and BUF D Andrej Sekera represented their native Slovakia at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
BUF AC Kevyn Adams and FLA RW Kris Versteeg both played on the 2007-08 Chicago Blackhawks squad.
BUF AC James Patrick played with FLA RW Alex Kovalev for two seasons (1992-93, 1993-94) on the New York Rangers, including the Rangers’ Stanley Cup winning season in 1993-94.
BUF G Jhonas Enroth, BUF D Mike Weber and FLA C Shawn Matthias were all drafted in the second round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Enroth, drafted by Buffalo, was the 46th overall selection, Matthias was selected by Detroit one pick later with the 47th overall selection, and Weber, also picked by Buffalo, was the 57th overall selection.
BUF D Jordan Leopold and BUF Cody McCormick both played with FLA G Jose Theodore for two seasons on the Colorado Avalanche (2006-07, 2007-08). FLA RW George Parros also played for the Avalanche in 2006-07.
FLA C Mike Santorelli and BUF D Alex Sulzer played together for two seasons (2008-09, 2009-10) on the Nashville Predators, along with FLA RW Jerred Smithson. Sulzer and Santorelli also played together for the Panthers during the 2010-11 season after they both were traded to Florida.
FLA HC Kevin Dineen was the head coach of the Portland Pirates for the three seasons the Sabres were affiliated with the Pirates. Dineen helped develop three straight AHL rookies of the year in Nathan Gerbe (2009), Tyler Ennis (2010) and Luke Adam (2011).
Dineen was also a teammate of BUF AC James Patrick on the Canadian Olympic Team at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo.
BUF AC Kevyn Adams was also a teammate of Dineen’s on the 2000-01 Columbus Blue Jackets squad.
FLA AC Craig Ramsay began his coaching career with Buffalo when he served as an assistant coach during the 1986-87 season and took over as interim head coach later in the year. Prior to leaving the Sabres in 1993, Ramsay also served as the team’s director of player personnel and assistant general manager. Ramsay also played for the Sabres for 14 seasons and is second in franchise history with 1,070 games played for the club.
BUF C Mikhail Grigorenko shares a birthday with FLA LW Tomas Fleischmann. Grigorenko, born on May 16, 1994, is exactly 10 years younger than Fleischmann, who was born in 1984.
BUF D TJ Brennan and FLA C Stephen Weiss were both born on April 3. Brennan, born in 1989, is six years younger than Weiss, who was born in 1983.
BUF RW Drew Stafford and FLA D Tyson Strachan were both born on October 30. Stafford, born in 1985, is one year younger than Strachan, who was born in 1984.
SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 3-4-1 (7), 24/29, 6/31, 30/37
OVERTIME RESULTS (0-1; 93-92 all-time)
January 29 vs. Toronto L, 4-3 (GWG-Frattin, 4:58)
SHOOTOUT RESULTS (0-0; 43-37 all-time)
N/A
MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Cody Hodgson … 1 game … 100 career games played
Alexander Sulzer … 5 games … 100 career games played
Jochen Hecht … 7 games … 800 career games played
Jordan Leopold … 7 games … 600 career games played
Assists
Jason Pominville … 2 assists … 265 career assists (sole possession, 10th in franchise history)
Points
Jason Pominville … 2 points … 445 career points (sole possession, 12th in franchise history)
Ville Leino … 2 points … 100 career points
Tyler Ennis … 3 points … 100 career points
Jordan Leopold … 5 points … 200 career points
RECENT MILESTONES
Jason Pominville … 179 career goals (12th in franchise history) … 1/29 vs. TOR
Thomas Vanek … 457 career points (10th in franchise history) … 1/29 vs. TOR
