Game Preview: 11/11/14 at STL

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, November 8
Pittsburgh 6 at Buffalo 1
Goals: Girgensons
Goalie: Enroth (33 saves/39 shots)
PP: 0/3; PK: 3/5; Shots: Pittsburgh 39 – Buffalo 21

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 46)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hackett (lower body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 16 games
Patrick Kaleta (upper body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 16 games
Marcus Foligno (upper body, Nov. 2) – 4 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
11/9: Assigned F Johan Larsson to Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, Nov. 13: Buffalo at Minnesota, 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 15: Toronto at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 18: San Jose at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 21: NY Rangers at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 22: Buffalo at Washington, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at BLUES

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Blues this season.
• Next meeting: Thursday, February 5, 2014 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Blues; 3-4-3 on the road.
• This is the 111^th game all-time between Buffalo and St. Louis; Buffalo has a 45-50-15 series record.
• The Sabres are 15-30-9 on the road against the Blues all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 10-6-2 all-time on November 11
• November 11, 1978: Don Edwards stops 25 shots in a 2-0 victory at Washington to earn his ninth NHL shutout and the 300^th win in Sabres history.
• November 11, 1981: Randy Cunneyworth scores his first NHL goal against Steve Weeks in a 7-3 loss to the Rangers.
• November 11, 2006: Drew Stafford scores his first career NHL goal against Antero Niittymaki in a 5-4 overtime win at Philadelphia.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The Sabres are looking to snap a four-game losing streak against the Blues. Their last win against St. Louis was a 5-3 victory in St. Louis on Dec. 27, 2009.
• Michal Neuvirth has faced the Blues once in his career; he stopped 25 of 27 shots on March 3, 2011 vs. STL to earn his 21^st win of the season, setting the Washington Capitals’ franchise record for wins by a rookie. Chris Stewart and Tyson Strachan both played for the Blues in the loss.
• Stewart will face the Blues tonight for the first time since the Sabres acquired him from St. Louis last season. He leads the Sabres with 15 career points (8+7) in nine games against the Blues, including five straight multi-point games from Dec. 7, 2009 to Nov. 15, 2010 as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE

• Josh Gorges has blocked an NHL-best 58 shots, 11 more than the next highest total (Kris Russell, CGY – 47 BS in 16 GP) through Sunday’s games.
• Gorges has blocked 13 percent of all opponent shot attempts taken with him on the ice this season. 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.

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, is 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-STL CONNECTIONS
Former Sabres:

• Steve Ott played for Buffalo for parts of two seasons from 2012-2014. Appearing in a total of 107 games with the club, Ott registered 44 points (18+26).
• Jordan Leopold also played for the Sabres, from 2010-2013. He recorded 67 points (25+42) in 174 games during his time in Buffalo.
• Jim Corsi served as the Sabres’ goaltender coach from 2001-2014.

Former Blues:

• Chris Stewart played for the Blues for parts of four seasons from 2011-2014. Stewart contributed 115 points (63+52) over a total of 211 games while with St. Louis.
• Tyson Strachan was a member of the Blues’ organization from 2007-2011. He notched six points (0+6) in 67 games for St. Louis, and added 42 points (8+34) in 141 for Peoria.

Arturs Irbe:

• Played for the Dallas Stars during the 1996-97 season when Ken Hitchcock was the Stars’ HC.

Andre Benoit:        

• He and Brian Elliott both played for the Ottawa Senators during the 2010-11 season.
• Played with Paul Stastny for the Colorado Avalanche during the 2013-14 season.
• Played with Maxim Lapierre for the Hamilton Bulldogs from 2005-2007.

Tyler Ennis:         

• He and Jay Bouwmeester were both born in Edmonton, Alberta.

Jhonas Enroth:

• Played with Magnus Paajarvi and Patrik Berglund as part of Team Sweden at the 2008 World Junior Championship.
• Played with Patrik Berglund and Alexander Steen for Team Sweden at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
• He and Jaden Schwartz share the same birthday. Enroth was born on June 25, 1988, while Schwartz was born four years later on June 25, 1992.

Marcus Foligno:

• Played with Jaden Schwartz for Team Canada at the 2011 World Junior Championship, held in Buffalo.

Brian Gionta:

• Gionta (1979) and Alex Pietrangelo (1990) were both born on January 18.
• Played with Jordan Leopold for the United States at the 2005 World Championship.
• Played under Kirk Muller from 2009-2011 when Muller was an AC for the Montreal Canadiens.

Josh Gorges:

• Played with Maxim Lapierre for the Montreal Canadiens from 2007-2009.
• Played under Kirk Muller from 2007-2011 when Muller was an AC for the Montreal Canadiens.

Cody Hodgson:           

• Played with Maxim Lapierre for the Vancouver Canucks during the 2011-12 season.

Cody McCormick:

• Played with Paul Stastny and Jordan Leopold for the Colorado Avalanche from 2006-09.

Andrej Meszaros:

• Played with Brian Elliot for the Ottawa Senators during the 2007-08 season.

Drew Stafford:

• Played with Jordan Leopold for the United States at the 2008 World Hockey Championship.
• Played with David Backes for Team USA at the 2008 and 2009 World Hockey Championships.
• He and TJ Oshie were both part of the 2005-06 North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

Chris Stewart:

• Played with Alex Pietrangelo for Team Canada at the 2011 World Championship.
• Played with Paul Stastny for the Colorado Avalanche from 2008-2011. Kevin Shattenkirk was also part of the team during the 2010-11 season before Stewart and Shattenkirk were traded to the Blues as part of the same trade.

Toronto Trio

• Cody Hodgson, Chris Stewart and Chris Porter were all born in Toronto, Ontario.

NHL Draft:

• Cody Hodgson (10^th overall), Tyler Myers (12^th overall), Tyler Ennis (26^th overall) and Alex Pietrangelo (4^th overall) were all selected in the first round of the 2008 NHL Draft. All four also represented Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championship.
• Matt Moulson (263^rd overall) and Brian Elliott (291^st overall) were both chosen in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL Draft.
• Patrick Berglund (25th overall) and Chris Stewart (18th overall) were both taken in the first round of the 2006 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (56), Weber (45), Girgensons (38)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (58), Weber (28), Myers (27)
Shots: Stewart (40), Girgensons (31), Ennis (30)

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: 1-3-2 (3), 9/21, 2/18, 14/19

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

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (2-1; 59-47 all-time)
October 14 at Carolina: W, 4-3 (GDG-Girgensons)
November 2 vs. Detroit: W, 3-2 (GDG-Girgensons)
November 5 vs. Montreal: L, 2-1 (GDG-Parenteau)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Chris Stewart … 2 games … 400 career games played
Andrej Meszaros … 3 games … 600 career games played
Brian Gionta … 8 games … 800 career games played
Jhonas Enroth … 10 games … 100 career games played
Assists
Tyler Myers … 1 assist … 100 career assists
Points
Josh Gorges … 1 point … 100 career points
Torrey Mitchell … 7 points … 100 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
Tyler Ennis … 100 career assists … Nov. 5 vs. MTL