Game Preview: 1/8/15 at CAR

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Tuesday, January 6
Buffalo 1 at New Jersey 4
Goals: Grigorenko
Goalie: Enroth (24 saves/27 shots); 1 ENG
PP: 1/2; PK: 2/2; Shots: New Jersey 28 – Buffalo 21

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 148)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Torrey Mitchell (lower body, Dec. 16; injured reserve) – 10 games
Marcus Foligno (undisclosed, Dec. 23; injured reserve) – 7 games
Brian Gionta (upper body, Dec. 23) – 7 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
1/4: Recalled F Tim Schaller and F Phil Varone from Rochester (AHL); Assigned F Johan Larsson to Rochester (AHL)
1/6: Activated D Tyler Myers from IR

UPCOMING GAMES
Friday, Jan. 9: Buffalo at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 13: Detroit at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 15: Minnesota at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 17: Philadelphia at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 18: Buffalo at Detroit, 8 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at HURRICANES

• This is the second of three meetings between the Sabres and Hurricanes this season.
• Next meeting: Monday, April 6 in Buffalo
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Carolina, 4-3 (SO), in Raleigh on Oct. 14
• The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Hurricanes; 4-4-2 on the road.
• This is the 191st game all-time between Buffalo and Carolina/Hartford; Buffalo has a 98-68-24 series record.
• The Sabres are 43-37-16 on the road against the Hurricanes/Whalers all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 11-1-4 all-time on January 8.
• January 8, 1988: Tom Barrasso stops 29 of 30 Hartford shots and Pierre Turgeon scores the game-winning goal as the Sabres top the Whalers, 3-1, at the Aud.
• January 8, 2000: Miroslav Satan scores on each of his three shots to earn his third hat trick as a member of the Sabres in a 7-4 win at Ottawa.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The Sabres are seeking consecutive wins against the Hurricanes for the first time since March 21, 2010 and Jan. 13, 2011.
• A win tonight would give the Sabres wins in consecutive road games against the Hurricanes for the first time since April 3 and Nov. 18, 2011. The Sabres haven’t defeated the Hurricanes on the road twice in a season since 2006-07.
• Jhonas Enroth has compiled a 10-6-1 record in his last 16 decisions.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game opens up Buffalo’s 10th of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, which concludes tomorrow night at TBL. The Sabres are 2-7-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 3-5-1 in the second game. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to- back sets is: four points (1), three points (0), two points (3), one point (1) and zero points (4).

ALL-STAR Z

• Second-year Latvian forward Zemgus Girgensons led all NHL players with 1,574,896 votes in the 2015 NHL All-Star Game Fan Vote and will become the 30^th player in Sabres history to appear in the All-Star Game when he plays in this year’s installment on Jan. 25 in Columbus.
• Of the other 29 Sabres All-Stars, only five others were selected to appear in the game in either of their first two NHL seasons: Tom Barrasso, Phil Housley, Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault, Christian Ruuttu
• With 11 goals this season, Girgensons has already bested his total of eight from his 70-game rookie season. He is two points from tying his 22-point output from last season.
• Girgensons leads all Sabres forwards with an average ice time of 18:54 per game this season.

LOGGING BIG MINUTES

• Entering Wednesday night’s games, Tyler Myers leads all Sabres and ranks 10th in the league with an average time on ice of 25:15 per game.
• He skated a team-high 22:09 on Tuesday at NJD in his return from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for seven games.
• Myers has averaged 25:49 of ice time in his last 10 games despite playing only 13:10 in the game in which he sustained his injury. He entered that game having averaged 28:11 in the previous 10 games; it was the highest 10-game average of his career.
• 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.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE

• Entering Wednesday’s games, Josh Gorges ranks second in the NHL with 106 blocked shots despite missing nine games to injury this season.
• Gorges has blocked 12.9 percent of all opponent shot attempts taken with him on the ice this season, ranking third among NHL defensemen who have faced at least 200 shot attempts. (Shot attempt data via war-on-ice.com)
• 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.

BUF-CAR CONNECTIONS
Former Sabres:         

• Nathan Gerbe was a member of the Sabres for five seasons from 2008-2013. He was selected by Buffalo in the fifth round (142nd overall) of the 2005 NHL Draft and tallied 72 points (29+43) in 188 games with the club.
• Andrej Sekera spent seven seasons as a member of the Sabres from 2006-2013. Initially drafted by Buffalo in the third round (71st overall) of the 2004 NHL Draft, Sekera appeared in 339 career games, and compiled 92 points (17+75).

Andre Benoit:

• Played with Brad Malone for the Colorado Avalanche during the 2013-14 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 75th overall, and Deslauriers was taken 84th overall.

Jhonas Enroth:

• He and Brett Bellemore were both born on June 25, 1988.
• Played with Elias Lindholm for Team Sweden at the 2014 Olympics.

Cody Hodgson:

• He and Jeff Skinner were both born in Toronto, Ontario.

Cody McCormick:

• Played with Patrick Dwyer in 2006-2007 for the Albany River Rats.

Michal Neuvirth:

• Played with Chris Terry for the Plymouth Whalers (OHL) during the 2006-07 season.
• Played with Alex Semin from 2008-2012 for the Washington Capitals.

Drew Stafford:

• Represented the United States alongside Tim Gleason at the 2008 World Championship.

Chris Stewart:

• He and Jay McClement were both sent to the St. Louis Blues as part of the Feb. 19, 2011 trade that saw Erik Johnson go to the Colorado Avalanche.
• Represented Team Canada alongside Jeff Skinner at the 2011 World Championship.

Tyson Strachan:

• Played with Patrick Dwyer in the 2006-2007 for the Albany River Rats.

2013 Draft:                  

• Elias Lindholm (5th overall), Rasmus Ristolainen (8th overall), and Nikita Zadorov (16th overall) were all selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (130), Foligno (92), Weber (83)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (106), Myers (73), Weber (67)
Shots: Ennis (100), Moulson (82), Girgensons (77)

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: 3-5-2 (8), 23/36, 4/27, 28/39
21-30: 7-3-0 (14), 22/22, 2/25, 20/25
31-40: 2-7-1 (5), 21/44, 4/27, 19/31
41-50: 0-1-0 (0), 1/4, 1/2, 2/2

OVERTIME RESULTS (1-2; 98-100 all-time)
October 30 vs. Boston: L, 3-2 (GDG-Marchand, 1:20)
December 13 vs. Florida: W, 4-3 (GDG-Zadorov, 0:29)
December 21 at Boston: L, 4-3 (Eriksson, 2:14)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (6-1; 63-47 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)
November 29 at Montreal: W, 4-3 (GDG-Flynn)
December 2 vs. Tampa Bay: W, 2-1 (GDG-Hodgson)
December 15 vs. Ottawa: W, 5-2 (GDG-Moulson)
December 27 vs. NY Islanders: W, 4-3 (GDG-Ennis)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Josh Gorges … 8 games … 600 career games played
Points
Torrey Mitchell … 3 points … 100 career points
Brian Gionta … 4 points … 500 career points
Matt Moulson … 8 points … 300 career points
Tyler Ennis … 10 points … 200 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A