Game Preview: 11/5/13 at San Jose

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, November 2
Anaheim 6 at Buffalo 3
Goals: Hodgson, Tallinder, Myers
Goalie: Enroth (23 saves/29 shots)
PP: 1/2; PK: 3/3; Shots: Anaheim 29 – Buffalo 17

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 66)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Joel Armia (hand, Oct. 2; injured non-roster) – 16 games
Mike Weber (upper body; Oct. 26; injured reserve) – 4 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/27: Acquired F Matt Moulson, a first-round selection in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and a second-round selection in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft from the New York Islanders in exchange for F Thomas Vanek
11/2: Activated F Corey Tropp from injured-non roster status; Placed F
Patrick Kaleta on waivers
11/3: Assigned F Patrick Kaleta to Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, Nov. 7: Buffalo at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 8: Buffalo at Anaheim, 10 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 12: Los Angeles at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 15: Toronto at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 16: Buffalo at Toronto, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at SHARKS

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Sharks this season.
• Next meeting: Friday, Feb. 28 in Buffalo
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated San Jose, 1-0, in San Jose on March 1, 2012
• The Sabres are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Sharks; 3-3-4 on the road.
• This is the 30^th game all-time between Buffalo and San Jose; Buffalo has an 18-6-5 series record.
• The Sabres are 4-5-6 on the road against the Sharks all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 10-9-2 all-time on November 5.
• November 5, 1992: San Jose tops Buffalo, 7-5, in San Jose, giving the Sharks their first victory against the Sabres in the fifth game between the teams.
• November 5, 2006: Drew Stafford makes his NHL debut in a 4-3 win at NYR and becomes just the second player in NHL history to record his first NHL point (assist) in the overtime period of his first NHL game.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Tonight’s game kicks off a three-game road trip for the Sabres, their second-longest of the season and their only trip of three or more games until March.
• The Sabres will look to earn their first win against a Western Conference opponent (0-6-0); the Sharks are 5-1-0 against the Eastern Conference.
• Cody Hodgson has 12 points (5+7) in his last 14 games.
• Matt Moulson has 12 points (7+5) in his last nine games, tallying at least a point in all but two of them.
• Entering Monday night’s games, Moulson ranks ninth among active NHL players with 120 goals since the beginning of the 2009-10 season.

SABRES-SHARKS NOTES

• The Sabres are currently on a four-game winning streak against the Sharks, matching the franchise high against San Jose set the first four times the teams faced off (10/25/91-10/23/92).
• Buffalo has won consecutive road games in San Jose for the first time in franchise history and will look to extend that streak to three tonight; their last road loss to the Sharks came on Jan. 23, 2010.
• The Sabres haven’t allowed a goal in their last 130:34 played against San Jose, with Ryan Miller shutting the Sharks out the last two times the teams met. Miller has turned aside the last 80 shots the Sharks have taken against the Sabres.
• Miller is 6-1-1 against the Sharks in his career with a .935 save percentage and a 1.96 goals against average.

YOUTH MOVEMENT
With teenage rookies Zemgus Girgensons, Mikhail Grigorenko, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov on the roster, the Sabres have become the first NHL team since 1995-96 to dress four teenagers during the course of a season. That year, the Sabres (Jay McKee, Martin Biron, Wayne Primeau, Vaclav Varada, Curtis Brown) joined Florida (4) and Winnipeg (6) as the last teams to dress at least four teenagers in a season.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Sabres have become the first team to dress four teenagers in a single game since March 30, 1996, when Winnipeg dressed four 19-year-olds (Shane Doan, Chad Kilger, Deron Quint and Oleg Tverdovsky) in a 5-2 loss to Detroit. The only time the Sabres have ever dressed four teenagers simultaneously was in the 1982-83 season, when forwards Dave Andreychuk and Paul Cyr and defensemen Phil Housley and Hannu Virta all played in 21 games together.

WELCOME TO BUFFALO
The Sabres have six players on their roster who scored on their first shot with the team: Moulson (10/28/13 vs. DAL), Zadorov (10/23/13 vs. BOS), Girgensons (10/2/13 at DET), McBain (10/8/13 vs. TBL), Ott (1/20/13 vs. PHI), Leino (10/7/11 vs. ANA).

BUF-SJS CONNECTIONS
BUF D Christian Ehrhoff was drafted by the Sharks in the fourth round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft (106^th overall) and played with the club for parts of five seasons. Ehrhoff appeared in 341 games for the Sharks and recorded 132 points (25+107).

SJS D Scott Hannan was teammates with BUF C Cody McCormick with the Colorado Avalanche from 2007-2009.

McCormick and SJS C Joe Thornton were both born in London, Ontario.

BUF LW John Scott played with SJS LW James Sheppard (2008-2010) and SJS RW Marty Havlat (2009-10) for the Minnesota Wild.

SJS C Tomas Hertl (17^th overall), BUF C Mikhail Grigorenko (12^th overall) and BUF C Zemgus Girgensons (14^th overall) were all first-round selections in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

SJS G Antti Niemi and BUF D Jamie McBain both played for Pelicans Lahti (SM-liiga) during the 2012-13 NHL work stoppage.

BUF G Ryan Miller and SJS C Joe Pavelski were teammates for Team USA at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

SJS D Brad Stuart and BUF LW Ville Leino played together for the Detroit Red Wings from 2008-2010.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Ott (49), Girgensons (36), Foligno (35)
Blocked Shots: Ehrhoff (29), Weber (24), Pysyk (19)
Shots: Hodgson (39), Stafford (38), Moulson (34)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 1-8-1 (3), 13/28, 3/35, 27/32
11-20: 1-5-0 (2), 13/21, 3/13, 17/21

OVERTIME RESULTS (0-1; 94-94 all-time)
October 10 vs. Tampa Bay: L, 3-2 (GWG-Killorn, 1:50)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-0; 51-41 all-time)
October 17 at NY Islanders: W, 4-3 (GDG-Ennis)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Goals
Steve Ott … 4 goals … 100 career goals

RECENT MILESTONES
Games Played
Tyler Ennis … 200^th career game … Oct. 26 at TBL
Goals
Nikita Zadorov … 1^st NHL goal … Oct. 23 vs. BOS
Rasmus Ristolainen … 1^st NHL goal … Oct. 25 at FLA
Points
Johan Larsson … 1^st NHL point (assist)… Nov. 2 vs. ANA