Game Preview: 11/13/14 at MIN

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Tuesday, November 11
Buffalo 1 at St. Louis 6
Goals: Ennis
Goalie: Neuvirth (23 saves/29 shots)
PP: 1/3; PK: 5/8; Shots: St. Louis 29 – Buffalo 29

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 47)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hackett (lower body, Oct. 9; injured reserve) – 17 games
Josh Gorges (lower body) – 0 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
11/9: Assigned F Johan Larsson to Rochester (AHL)
11/10: Activated F Patrick Kaleta from IR

UPCOMING GAMES
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.
Wednesday, Nov. 26: Winnipeg at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at WILD

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Wild this season.
• Next meeting: Thursday, January 15 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Wild; 5-2-0 in seven road games against the Wild all-time.
• This is the 15^th game all-time between Buffalo and Minnesota; Buffalo has a 7-7-0 series record.
• The Sabres are 5-2-0 on the road against the Wild all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 11-7-2 all-time on November 13
• November 13, 1983: Mike Foligno and Gilbert Perreault each score a hat trick in an 11-2 Sabres rout vs. Calgary.
• November 13, 2006: Teppo Numminen appears in his 1,252^nd NHL game at Carolina, surpassing Jari Kurri for the most by a European-trained player.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Tonight is Chris Stewart’s 400^th NHL game.
• Buffalo has played fewer games against Minnesota (14) than any other NHL franchise.
• The Sabres have never lost consecutive games in Minnesota to the Wild. They will look to avoid their first three-game losing streak to the Wild after being swept in the teams’ two-game series last season.
• Chris Stewart leads all Sabres with 12 points (7+5) in 22 career games against the Wild.
• Josh Gorges left Tuesday’s game at St. Louis with a lower-body injury and is expected to miss tonight’s game. Gorges has blocked an NHL-best 60 shots through 17 games, including 13.2 percent of all opponent shot attempts taken with him on the ice this season.

KALETA RETURNS
Patrick Kaleta was activated from injured reserve on Tuesday. If he plays in tonight’s game, it will be his first NHL game since Oct. 10, 2013. Kaleta appeared in seven AHL games last November before sustaining a season-ending knee injury on Nov. 29 against the Lake Erie Monsters. He was set to return to the Sabres at the beginning of the 2014-15 season, but took a puck to the face in the Sabres’ preseason game in Toronto on Sept. 28, causing him to miss the first 16 games of the season.

FAMILIAR FACES
Three players on each of these teams’ rosters have direct ties to tonight’s opponent:

• Thomas Vanek was a member of the Sabres for just over eight seasons from 2005-2013. Initially drafted by Buffalo in the first-round (5^th overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft, Vanek finished his career with the Sabres ranked 10^th in franchise history in points (497), fifth in goals (254), 13^th in assists (243), fourth in power play goals (106) and fourth in game-winning goals (41).
• Jason Pominville spent the better part of nine seasons as a member of the Sabres (2003-2013), also serving as captain from 2011-2013. During this time, he suited up for a total of 578 games with Buffalo and recorded 456 points (185+271).
• Keith Ballard was the Sabres’ first selection in the 2002 NHL Draft (11^th overall), but did not appear in any games with the team.
• Torrey Mitchell spent parts of two seasons with the Wild from 2012-2014. He appeared in a total of 103 games and tallied 17 points (5+12).
• Matt Moulson spent part of the 2013-14 season with the Wild, tallying 13 points (6+7) in 20 games and adding three points (1+2) in 10 playoff games.
• Cody McCormick also played for the Wild for part of the 2013-14 season, registering two points (1+1) during a span of 14 games. He also contributed one goal in 13 postseason appearances.
• Each of these three Sabres players were involved in a single trade last year, as Buffalo traded Moulson and McCormick to Minnesota in exchange for Mitchell and two second-round draft picks. Moulson and Mitchell each then returned to the Sabres as free agents on July 1.

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-MIN CONNECTIONS
Tyler Ennis:

• He and Jared Spurgeon were both born in Edmonton, Alberta.

Brian Gionta

• Played with Thomas Vanek for the Montreal Canadiens during the 2013-14 season.
• Played with Zach Parise for the New Jersey Devils from 2005-2009.

Josh Gorges

• Played with Thomas Vanek for the Montreal Canadiens during the 2013-14 season.

Cody Hodgson:          

• Played with Keith Ballard for the Vancouver Canucks from 2010-2012.

Johan Larsson:

• Larsson (1992) and Matthew Dumba (1994) were both born on July 25.

Andrej Meszaros:

• Played with Stephane Veilleux for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2009-10 season.

Matt Moulson:

• Played with Nino Niederreiter for the New York Islanders from 2010-2012. The two were also reunited briefly with the Wild during the 2013-14 season.

Michal Neuvirth:

• Shares a birthday with Erik Haula. Neuvirth was born on March 23, 1988, and Haula was born three years later on March 23, 1991.

Rasmus Ristolainen:

• Played with Mikael Granlund for Team Finland at the 2012 World Junior Championship.

Drew Stafford:

• Played with Jason Pominville, Zach Parise and Keith Ballard for the United States at the 2008 World Hockey Championship.
• He and Keith Ballard played together in the 2009 Championship as well.
• Stafford and Zach Parise were teammates at Shattuck-St. Mary’s from 2000-2002 as well as at the University of North Dakota during the 2003-04 season. The two played alongside Ryan Suter for the United States during the 2004 World Junior Championship, while Suter and Stafford both donned the red, white and blue during the 2005 World Juniors as well as the 2006 and 2009 World Hockey Championships.

Tyson Strachan:

• Played with Ryan Carter for the Florida Panthers during the 2011-13 season.

NHL Draft:

• Zemgus Girgensons and Mathew Dumba were both first round selections in the 2012 NHL Draft. Dumba was chosen 7^th overall, while Girgensons was taken 14^th.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (60), Weber (47), Foligno (42)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (60), Weber (30), Myers (28)
Shots: Stewart (40), Girgensons (36), Ennis (35)

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: 1-4-2 (3), 10/27, 3/21, 19/27

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 … 1 game … 400 career games played
Andrej Meszaros … 3 games … 600 career games played
Brian Gionta … 7 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
N/A