Game Preview: 10/22/14 at ANA

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, October 18
Boston 4 at Buffalo 0
Goals: N/A
Goalie: Enroth (32 saves/36 shots)
PP: 0/7; PK: 3/3; Shots: Boston 36 – Buffalo 32

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 22)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hackett (lower body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 6 games
Patrick Kaleta (upper body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 6 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/16: Assigned D Jake McCabe and D Mark Pysyk to Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, Oct. 23: Buffalo at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 25: Buffalo at San Jose, 4 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 28: Buffalo at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 30: Boston at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 1: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at DUCKS

• This is the second of two meetings between the Sabres and Ducks this season.
• Last meeting: Anaheim defeated Buffalo, 5-1, in Buffalo on Oct. 13
• The Sabres are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Ducks; 6-4-0 on the road
• This is the 30^th game all-time between Buffalo and Anaheim; Buffalo has a 15-11-3 series record.
• The Sabres are 8-6-0 on the road against the Ducks all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 10-7-0 all-time on October 22.
• October 22, 1972: Gilbert Perreault picks up six points (2+4) and Rick Martin scores four goals, including three in the third period, as the Sabres defeat the Atlanta Flames, 7-2.
• October 22, 2011: Brad Boyes plays in his 500^th NHL game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The Sabres will look to avoid losing a fourth-straight game to the Ducks for just the second time in franchise history (last: Dec. 5, 2007 to Jan. 19, 2010).
• Chris Stewart leads all Sabres with 12 points (5+7) in 19 career games against the Ducks.
• Buffalo needs a goal tonight to avoid being shut out in three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.

SHUTTING OUT THE DUCKS
The Sabres have shut out the Ducks six times in the 29 all-time games between the clubs (Hasek-3, Biron-2, Miller-1). This amounts to one shutout for every 4.8 meetings, the Sabres’ highest shutout-to-games ratio against any NHL team. This ratio is so much higher against the Ducks than the next closest opponent that the Ducks would have to score a goal in each of the next 22 meetings between the teams to bring it even with the next highest current ratio (NSH, 8.5 games per shutout). The Sabres’ last shutout against the Ducks occurred four meetings ago on Feb. 29, 2012 in Anaheim.

EXPANDED ROLE FOR MYERS
Tyler Myers has led all Sabres skaters in ice time in each of the team’s six games and ranks ninth in the league with an average of 25:49 per game. His 29:25 last Tuesday at CAR was his highest total since his career-high 31:05 on Jan. 14, 2012 at NYI. Myers last led the Sabres in ice time in a season in his rookie season of 2009-10, when he averaged 23:44 per game.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game opens up Buffalo’s third of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, which will continue tomorrow night at Los Angeles. The Sabres are 0-2-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 1-1-0 in the second game. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to- back sets is: four points (0), three points (0), two points (1), one point (0) and zero points (1).

A NEW LOOK
Only 10 of the 20 Sabres players who dressed for the first game of the 2013-14 season appeared on the team’s 2014-15 opening day roster. Only six players on this year’s opening day roster suited up for the team in the season-opener two years ago: Tyler Ennis, Jhonas Enroth, Marcus Foligno, Cody Hodgson, Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford

A FRESH FACE
With his debut on Thursday vs. CBJ, Sam Reinhart became the seventh 18-year-old ever to dress for the Sabres and the fourth to do so on opening day. The Sabres have now had an 18-year-old in the opening day lineup each of the last three years (2013-14: Rasmus Ristolainen; 2012-13: Mikhail Grigorenko).

YOUNGEST SABRES DEBUTS

FEARLESS LEADERS

• Brian Gionta has been selected to wear the captain’s “C” for the Sabres in 2014-15, becoming the 19^th full-season captain in franchise history (excludes rotating captaincies in 2003-04 and 2007-08).
• Gionta, who spent the last four seasons as captain of the Montreal Canadiens, will be the 27th player to wear the captain’s “C” for at least a one-month period.
• Josh Gorges and Matt Moulson were named the team’s alternate captains.

2014-15 ROSTER NOTES
Of the 23 players on Buffalo’s opening night roster:

• 10 were originally drafted by the Sabres — seven were first-round Buffalo selections (Stafford, 2004; Myers and Ennis, 2008; Girgensons, 2012; Ristolainen and Zadorov, 2013; Reinhart, 2014), two were second-round picks (Enroth and Weber, 2006) and one was a fourth-round pick (Foligno, 2009)
• Six were acquired in trades: Deslauriers, Gorges, Hodgson, Mitchell, Neuvirth, Stewart
• Seven were signed as free agents: Benoit, Flynn, Gionta, Meszaros, McCormick, Moulson, Strachan
• 17 played in Buffalo at some point last season
• Six are new to the Sabres this season: Benoit, Gionta, Gorges, Meszaros, Reinhart, Strachan
• Three are opening the season on an NHL roster for the first time in their careers: Deslauriers, Reinhart, Zadorov

BUF-ANA CONNECTIONS
Tyler Ennis:

• He and Mark Fistric are natives of Edmonton, Alberta.

Jhonas Enroth:

• Played with Jakob Silfverberg for Team Sweden at the 2012 World Hockey Championship. The duo also teamed up to help Sweden win the silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Josh Gorges:

• Played with Ryan Getzlaf for Team Canada at the 2004 World Junior Championship.

Cody Hodgson:        

• He and Andrew Cogliano were both born in Toronto, Ontario.
• Played with Ryan Kesler for the Vancouver Canucks from 2010-2012.

Andrej Meszaros

• Teammates with Mark Fistric for the Vancouver Giants during the 2004-05 season.
• Played with Dany Heatley for the Ottawa Senators from 2005-2008.
• Teamed up with Nate Thompson for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2009-10 season.
• He and Jakob Silfverberg (1990) were both born on October 13.

Torrey Mitchell:            

• Played alongside Dany Heatley for the San Jose Sharks from 2009-2011, before being reunited with the Minnesota Wild from 2011-2014.

Matt Moulson:

• Played with Tim Jackman for the New York Islanders during the 2009-10 season. The two were also teammates with the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL during the 2006-07 season.

Tyler Myers:

• Played with Corey Perry and Francois Beauchemin for Team Canada at the 2010 World Championship.

Michal Neuvirth:         

• Played under the tutelage of current Bruce Boudreau from 2008-2012, when Boudreau served as HC of the Washington Capitals.

Drew Stafford:          

• Played with Ryan Kesler for the United States at the 2004 World Junior Championship.

Mike Weber:                        

• Weber and John Gibson were both born in Pittsburgh, PA.

Minnesota Reunion:      

• Tonight’s game will feature five members of the 2013-14 Minnesota Wild. Cody McCormick, Torrey Mitchell, Matt Moulson, Dany Heatley and Clayton Stoner all played for the Wild last season.

NHL Entry Draft:

• Brian Gionta (82^nd overall) and Francois Beauchemin (75^th overall) were both chosen in the third round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.
• Drew Stafford (13^th overall), Andrej Meszaros (24^th overall) and Mark Fistric (28^th overall) were all chosen in the first round of the 2004 Entry Draft.
• Marcus Foligno (104^th overall) and Sami Vatanen (106^th overall) were both fourth-round selections in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
• Cam Fowler (12^th overall), Mark Pysyk (23^rd overall) and Emerson Etem (29^th overall) were all first-round selections in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
• Zemgus Girgensons (14^th overall) and Hampus Lindholm (6^th overall) were both selected in the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
• Rasmus Ristolainen (8th overall), Nikita Zadorov (16th overall) and Shea Theodore (26th overall) were all selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (20), Weber (18), Foligno (15)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (30), Benoit (12), Weber (11)
Shots: Myers/Stewart (15), Girgensons (14), Moulson/Gionta (13)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 1-5-0 (2), 8/22, 0/22, 22/25

OVERTIME RESULTS (0-0; 97-98 all-time)
N/A

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-0; 58-46 all-time)
October 14 at Carolina: W, 4-3 (GDG-Girgensons)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Torrey Mitchell … 2 games … 400 career games played
Assists
Tyler Ennis … 3 assists … 100 career assists
Tyler Myers … 3 assists … 100 career assists
Points
Josh Gorges … 2 points … 100 career points
Torrey Mitchell … 8 points … 100 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A