Game Preview: 11/2/14 vs. DET

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, November 1
Buffalo 0 at Pittsburgh 5
Goals: N/A
Goalie: Enroth (29 saves/34 shots)
PP: 0/6; PK: 2/5; Shots Pittsburgh 34 – Buffalo 18

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 34)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hackett (lower body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 12 games
Patrick Kaleta (upper body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 12 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/31: Assigned F Sam Reinhart to Kootenay (WHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Wednesday, Nov. 5: Montreal at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 7: Edmonton at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 8: Pittsburgh at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Buffalo at St. Louis, 8 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 13: Buffalo at Minnesota, 8 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
RED WINGS at SABRES

• This is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Red Wings this season.
• Next meeting: Tuesday, Dec. 23 in Detroit
• The Sabres are 1-7-2 in their last 10 games vs. the Red Wings; 2-7-1 at home.
• This is the 121^st game all-time between Buffalo and Detroit; Buffalo has a 53-51-16 series record.
• The Sabres are 34-16-9 at home against the Red Wings all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 9-7-3 all-time on November 2.
• November 2, 1984: Brent Peterson (1+3), Gilbert Perreault (1+2), Ric Seiling (1+2) and Phil Housley (0+3) all post three or more points in Buffalo’s 8-1 over Hartford at the Aud.
• November 2, 1996: Dominik Hasek made 32 saves and Patrick Roy stopped all 20 Buffalo shots as the Sabres and Avalanche dueled to the fifth scoreless tie in Sabres history.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Matt Moulson has eight points (5+3) in his last six games against Detroit.
• Zemgus Girgensons enjoyed a trio of NHL firsts against the Red Wings last season. He scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game at DET (10/2) and recorded his first NHL two-goal game vs. DET (4/8).
• Chris Stewart leads the Sabres with 13 career points (6+7) in 24 games against the Red Wings.
• The Sabres have lost their last eight games against the Red Wings, marking the longest drought against Detroit in franchise history. The last win was a 6-2 victory in Buffalo on Oct. 13, 2009.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE

• Josh Gorges has blocked an NHL-best 53 shots, 15 more than the next highest total (Kris Russell, CGY – 38 BS in 12 GP) through Saturday’s games. Gorges has blocked 15.3 percent of all opponent shot attempts taken with him on the ice this season, the highest percentage among NHL defensemen who have faced at least 100 shot attempts (see chart below).
• His best full-season on-ice shot blocking percentage was 13.0 percent in 2011-12 with Montreal. No NHL-regular defenseman has topped 14 percent in a full season since the league started counting blocked shots in 2005-06.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s fourth of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, which began with a 5-0 loss in Pittsburgh yesterday. The Sabres are 0-4-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 1-2-0 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 (2).

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.

BUF-DET CONNECTIONS
Ted Nolan:

• Played parts of two seasons for the Red Wings (1981-82 and 1983-84), appearing in a total of 60 games. Initially selected by Detroit in the fifth round of the 1978 NHL Draft, Nolan tallied 20 points (5+15) during his time with the club.

Andre Benoit:

• Played with Jakub Kindl for the Kitchener Rangers during the 2004-05 season.

Nicolas Deslauriers:

• Shares a birthday with Andrej Nestrasil. Both players were born on Feb. 22, 1991. The two were also drafted in the third round of the 2009 NHL Draft. Nestrasil went 75^th overall, and Deslauriers was waken 84^th

Tyler Ennis:

• Played with Darren Helm for two seasons (2005-2007) with the Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL).

Jhonas Enroth:

• Played with Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Jonathan Ericsson for Sweden at the 2012 World Championship.
• Played with Joakim Andersson for Sweden at the 2008 World Junior Championship.
• Played with Jonas Gustavsson, Niklas Kronwall, Jonathan Ericsson, Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist for Sweden at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• He and Niklas Kronwall are natives of Stockholm, Sweden.

Brian Flynn:

• Played with Gustav Nyquist at the University of Maine for three seasons from 2008-2011.

Cody Hodgson:

• Hodgson, Stephen Weiss and Brendan Smith were all born in Toronto, Ontario.

Matt Moulson

• Played with Kyle Quincey for the Los Angeles Kings during the 2008-09 season.

Andrej Meszaros:

• Played with Tomas Jurco and Tomas Tatar for Slovakia at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• Played with Drew Miller for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2009-10 season.

Chris Stewart:

• Played with Kyle Quincey for the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-2011.

Tyson Strachan:

• Played with Stephen Weiss for the Florida Panthers from 2011-2013.

Mike Weber:           

• Played with Matt Lashoff for the Barrie Colts (OHL) during the 2006-07 season.

Local Players:

• Riley Sheahan was born in St. Catharines, Ontario.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Weber (37), Foligno (36), Deslauriers (35)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (53), Weber (27), Benoit (23)
Shots: Stewart (30), Moulson/Myers (23), Girgensons (21)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 2-8-0 (2), 11/33, 0/32, 33/39
11-20: 0-1-1 (1), 2/8, 1/8, 4/7

OVERTIME RESULTS (0-1; 97-99 all-time)
October 30 vs. Boston: L, 3-2 (GDG-Marchand, 1:20)

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

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Andrej Meszaros … 6 games … 600 career games played
Chris Stewart … 6 games … 400 career games played
Assists
Tyler Ennis … 2 assists … 100 career assists
Tyler Myers … 2 assists … 100 career assists
Points
Josh Gorges … 2 points … 100 career points
Torrey Mitchell … 7 points … 100 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A