Game Preview: 10/27/15 at PHI

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, October 24
New Jersey 4 at Buffalo 3
Goals: Ennis, O’Reilly, Eichel
Goalie: Ullmark (24 saves/28 shots)
PP: 2/5; PK: 2/2; Shots: Buffalo 29 – New Jersey 28

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 36)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Zach Bogosian (lower body, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 8 games
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 8 games
Robin Lehner (high ankle sprain, Oct. 10) – 7 games
Marcus Foligno (lower body, Oct. 24) – 1 game
Evander Kane (MCL, Oct. 27) – 0 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/21: Activated D Bobby Sanguinetti from IR; placed Sanguinetti on waivers
10/22: Assigned D Bobby Sanguinetti to Rochester (AHL)
10/23: Recalled G Linus Ullmark from Rochester (AHL); assigned G Nathan Lieuwen to Rochester
10/26: Recalled F Tim Schaller from Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, Oct. 29: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 30: Philadelphia at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 1: Buffalo at NY Islanders, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 5: Tampa Bay at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 7: Vancouver at Buffalo, 1 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at FLYERS

• This is the first of three meetings between the Sabres and Flyers this season.
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Philadelphia, 3-2 (SO), in Philadelphia on Feb. 19
• Next meeting: Friday, Oct. 30 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Flyers; 4-6-0 on the road.
• This is the 168th game all-time between Buffalo and Philadelphia; Buffalo has a 64-80-23 series record.
• The Sabres are 24-48-13 on the road against the Flyers all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 11-6-2 all-time on October 27.
• October 27, 1970: Randy Wyrozub records the first two-goal game in franchise history in a 7-2 loss at Vancouver.
• October 27, 1991: Pat LaFontaine plays in his first game as a Sabre, a 4-1 loss at Hartford.
• October 27, 2013: The Sabres acquire Matt Moulson, a first-round pick in 2015 (later traded to Ottawa for Robin Lehner and David Legwand) and a second-round pick in 2015 (Brendan Guhle) from the New York Islanders in exchange for Thomas Vanek.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• After winning their last matchup (3-2 SO, Feb. 19 at PHI), the Sabres are looking for consecutive wins against the Flyers for the first time since March 5 and Apr. 8, 2011.
• The last time the Sabres won in consecutive visits to Philadelphia was Nov. 14 and 27, 2009.
• Rasmus Ristolainen is looking for points in four straight matchups with the Flyers after tallying an assist in each of the three meetings between the teams last season.
• Matt Moulson has four assists in his last four games against the Flyers.
• Through eight games, the Sabres have three forwards averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game: Ryan O’Reilly (20:59), Tyler Ennis (20:22), Evander Kane (20:18). All three ranked in the top 13 in average ice time among NHL forwards entering play Monday.
• If he dresses tonight, Marcus Foligno will appear in his 200th NHL game.

SEE YOU SOON
The Sabres and Flyers will meet again in three days in Buffalo. For the Sabres, this is the first of eight sets of games this season in which they’ll face the same opponent both home and away in a three-game span; two of these are home-and-home series. The next such set will take place on Nov. 5 and 10 against Tampa Bay.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Tyler Ennis has seven points (2+5) and 28 shots in his last eight road games, including two points (1+1) and 12 shots in two road games this season. Ennis has six points (2+4) in nine career road games in Philadelphia, where he scored his first career goal in his NHL debut on Nov. 14, 2009.

OUTSHOOTING OPPONENTS
The Sabres have outshot their opponents in six of their first eight games this season, posting a 2-4-0 record in those games. Last season, the Sabres hadn’t outshot their opponents six times until their 71st game and finished the season 5-5-0 when outshooting their opponent.

POSSESSION PROGRESSION

• The Sabres have led their opponent in even-strength shot attempts (corsi) in four of the team’s eight games this season, going 2-2-0 in those games. Buffalo finished the 2014-15 season with a 3-5-0 record in games in which they recorded more shot attempts than their opponent.
• Entering play Monday, the Sabres ranked 11th in the league with a corsi for percentage of 50.8%. Buffalo finished last season with a CF% of 37.5%. The Sabres last finished a season with a CF% of more than 50% in 2010-11 (50.4%).

QUICK DRAW McGRAW
Entering play Monday, Ryan O’Reilly was ranked fifth in the league with 182 faceoffs taken, accounting for 36.8% of Buffalo’s total faceoffs. O’Reilly’s faceoff percentage (58.8%) ranked him 12th in the league among players with at least 50 faceoffs taken before Monday’s games.

READY TO MAKE HIS (ULL)MARK
If he earns a win before Dec. 6, Linus Ullmark (22 years, 89 days) would be the youngest goaltender to earn a win for the Sabres since Mika Noronen (21 years, 111 days) did so on Oct. 5, 2000 vs. Chicago.

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
Entering the season, the 23 players on the Sabres’ opening day roster had combined to play 6,520 NHL games, 662 more than last year’s opening-day roster had between them. The average Sabres skater entering the 2015-16 season had played 28 more NHL games than his counterpart from last season and 60 more games than his 2013-14 counterpart.

BUF-PIT CONNECTIONS
Former Flyers:

• Carlo Colaicovo spent the 2014-15 season with Philadelphia, registering eight points (2+6) in 33 games.

Carlo Colaiacovo:

• Teammates with Luke Schenn for Team Canada at the 2011 World Championship.

Tyler Ennis:

• Played with Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn for Team Canada at the 2015 World Championship.

Marcus Foligno:

• Marcus and Sam Gagner were both born on Aug. 10. Gagner was born on Aug. 10, 1989 and Foligno was born two years later on Aug. 10, 1991.
• Played with Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier for Team Canada in the 2011 World Junior Championship, which took place in Buffalo.

Cody Franson:

• Teammates with Nick Schultz for Team Canada at the 2002 World Junior Championship.
• Represented Team Canada alongside Sam Gagner at the 2007 World Junior Championship.
• Played with Luke Schenn for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2011-12 season.

Brian Gionta:

• He and Jason LaBarbera share a birthday. Gionta was born on Jan. 18, 1979 and LaBarbera was born one year later on Jan. 18, 1980.
• Played with Ryan White for the Montreal Canadiens from 2009-2014.

Josh Gorges:     

• Played with Mark Streit for Montreal Canadiens during the 2007-08 season..
• Played with Ryan White for the Montreal Canadiens from 2009-2014.

Chad Johnson:

• He and the Schenn brothers (Brayden and Luke) were all born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
• Played with Michael Del Zotto for the New York Rangers from 2009-2011. They also represented Team Canada together at the 2010 World championship.
• He and Jason LaBarbera played together for the Phoenix Coyotes during the 2012-13 season.

Matt Moulson:

• Played with Mark Streit for the New York Islanders from 2009-2013.
• He and Jason LaBarbera played together for the Los Angeles Kings from 2007-2009. Wayne Simmonds was also on the team during the 2008-09 season.

Sam Reinhart:

• Played with Scott Laughton for Team Canada at the 2014 World Junior Championship

Mike Weber:

• Weber and R.J. Umberger were both born in Pittsburgh, Pa.

NHL Draft:

• Brian Gionta (82ns overall by New Jersey) and Jason LaBarbera (66th overall by the New York Rangers) were both third-round picks in the 1998 NHL Draft.
• Carlo Colaiacovo (17th overall by Toronto) was taken one pick after R.J. Umberger (16th overall by Vancouver) in the first round of the 2001 NHL Draft.
• Jamie McGinn (36th overall by San Jose) and Michal Neuvirth (34th overall by Washington) were both second-round picks in the 2006 NHL Draft.
• Tyler Ennis (26th overall), Luke Schenn (5th overall) and Michael Del Zotto (20th) overall were all first-round selections in the 2008 NHL Draft. Ennis, and Schenn were also teammates with Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championship.
• Zemgus Girgensons (14th overall) and Scott Laughton (20th overall) were both taken in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Kane (24), Deslauriers (19), Girgensons (14)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (17), Ristolainen (15), Pysyk (9)
Shots: Ennis (29), Kane (22), Eichel (24)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 2-6-0 (4), 16/26, 8/31, 17/24

OVERTIME RESULTS (0-0; 98-101 all-time)
N/A

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-0; 66-51 all-time)
Oct. 21 vs. TOR: W, 2-1 (GDG-Moulson)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Marcus Foligno … 1 game … 200 career games played
Goals
Ryan O’Reilly … 7 goals … 100 career goals
Assists
Zach Bogosian … 6 assists … 100 career assists
Josh Gorges … 9 assists … 100 career assists

RECENT MILESTONES
Linus Ullmark … 1st NHL game … Oct. 24 vs. NJD