GAME-DAY RESOURCES
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LAST GAME
Saturday, November 21
Buffalo 0 at Dallas 3
Goals: N/A
Goalie: Johnson (29 saves/32 shots)
PP: 0/3; PK: 4/5; Shots: Dallas 32 – Buffalo 22
CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 94)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 20 games
Robin Lehner (high ankle sprain, Oct. 10; injured reserve) – 19 games
Mike Weber (knee, Nov. 10; injured reserve) – 6 games
Zemgus Girgensons (upper body, Nov. 17; injured reserve) – 3 games
Mark Pysyk (bone bruise, Nov. 19) – 2 games
TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
11/17: Activated D Zach Bogosian from IR; placed D Mike Weber on IR
11/19: Activated F Evander Kane from IR
11/22: Placed F Zemgus Girgensons on IR
UPCOMING GAMES
Wednesday, Nov. 25: Nashville at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 27: Carolina at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 28: Buffalo at Nashville, 8 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 1: Buffalo at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 4: Arizona at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
TONIGHT’S GAME
BLUES at SABRES
- This is the second of two meetings between the Sabres and Blues this season.
- Last meeting: St. Louis defeated Buffalo, 3-2 (SO), in St. Louis on Nov. 19
- The Sabres are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Blues; 1-9-0 at home.
- This is the 114th game all-time between Buffalo and St. Louis; Buffalo has a 45-52-16 series record.
- The Sabres are 30-21-6 at home against the Blues all-time.
THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY
- The Sabres are 8-6-1 all-time on November 23.
- November 23, 1978: Larry Playfair makes his NHL debut in a 5-2 loss at Boston.
- November 23, 2011:J. Brennan scores in his NHL debut versus Boston, becoming the first Sabres defenseman to score in his first NHL game since Lindy Ruff.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
- The Sabres are looking to snap a seven-game losing streak against the Blues and a three-game home losing streak in St. Louis. Their last win against St. Louis was a 5-3 victory in St. Louis on Dec. 27, 2009 and their last home win came on Nov. 12, 2008.
- O’Reilly (21:43) leads all NHL forwards in average ice time per game. His 22:22 average time on ice per game since Oct. 30 is the highest 10-game average of his career.
NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN
The Sabres and Blues are meeting for the second time in four days after St. Louis’s shootout win in St. Louis on Thursday. For the Sabres, this is the fourth 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. 25 and 28 against Nashville.
ONE BUFFALO
- The Sabres and the Buffalo Bills are playing on the same day for the second time this season after both teams won their respective games on Thursday, Nov. 12.
- The teams have played on the same date 210 times, with both teams winning their respective games on 47 of those days.
- The Sabres are 113-64-33 when playing on a Bills gameday and the Bills are 89-119-2 on those dates.
- If both teams win tonight, the Sabres and Bills will both have won on the same date twice in the same season for the first time since Nov. 5 and Nov. 26, 2006.
- The teams last won on the same date in consecutive NFL weeks on Nov. 12 and 19, 1995, the last two weeks of a six-week stretch in which both teams played on the same date five times.
SABRES GOALIES HEATING UP
- Linus Ullmark has gone 2-1-1 in his last four games with a .939 save percentage and a 1.97 goals-against average.
- Chad Johnson has gone 1-1-1 in his last four appearances, logging a .943 save percentage and a 1.62 goals-against average.
FINNISHING TOUCH
Entering Sunday night’s games, Rasmus Ristolainen ranked in the top 15 among NHL defensemen in goals (T-7th, 4),points (T-12th, 12) and multi-point games (T-4th, 4). No Sabres defenseman has finished a season with five or more multi-point games since Christian Ehrhoff (six) in 2011-12.
QUICK DRAW McGRAW
Entering Sundat night’s games, Ryan O’Reilly (58.4%) was ranked sixth in the league in faceoff percentage. O’Reilly also ranked fourth in the league with 481 faceoffs taken, accounting for 40.6% of Buffalo’s total faceoffs.
THEY’VE GOT THE POWER
The Sabres are 14-for-65 (21.5%) on the power play this season, ranked eighth in the league before Sunday’s games. The Sabres last finished a season above 20 percent on the power play in 2008-09 (21.0%).
OUTSHOOTING OPPONENTS
The Sabres have outshot their opponents in 11 of their first 20 games this season, posting a 4-6-1 record in those games. Last season, the team finished the season 5-5-0 in 10 total games when outshooting their opponent.
POSSESSION PROGRESSION
- The Sabres have led their opponent in even-strength shot attempts (corsi) in nine of the team’s 20 games this season, going 3-5-1 in those games.
- Buffalo only led their opponents in even-strength shot attempts eight times throughout the entire 2014-15 season, going 3-5-0 in those eight games.
- Before Sunday night’s games, the Sabres ranked 15th in the league with a corsi for percentage of 49.6%. 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%).
(Data courtesy of war-on-ice.com)
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).
- Jim Corsi served as the Sabres’ goaltender coach from 2001-2014.
Former Blues:
- Carlo Colaiacovo spent five seasons with St. Louis from 2008 to 2012 and again during the 2012-13 season. With the Blues, Colaiacovo had 110 points (19+91) and a plus-9 rating in 284 games.
Dan Bylsma:
- Coached Robert Bortuzzo for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2011-2014.
Zach Bogosian:
- Represented the United States alongside David Backes at the 2009 World Championship.
Carlo Colaiacovo:
- Represented Team Canada alongside Jay Bouwmeester, Steve Ott and Scottie Upshall at the 2002 World Junior Championship. Colaiacovo and Upshall also played together for the 2003 Canadian World Junior squad.
- Played with Alexander Steen for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2005-2008.
- Teammates with Alex Pietrangelo for Team Canada at the 2011 World Championship.
Tyler Ennis:
- He and Jay Bouwmeester were both born in Edmonton, Alberta.
Marcus Foligno:
- Played with Jaden Schwartz for Team Canada at the 2011 World Junior Championship held in Buffalo.
Cody Franson:
- Played with Carl Gunnarsson for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2011-2014.
Brian Gionta:
- Gionta (1979) and Alex Pietrangelo (1990) were both born on January 18.
- Played under Kirk Muller from 2009-2011 when Muller was an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens.
- Teammates with Scott Gomez for the New Jersey Devils from 2001-2007 and for the United States at the 2006 Olympics.
Josh Gorges:
- Played under Kirk Muller from 2007-2011 when Muller was an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens.
Chad Johnson:
- Played with Steve Ott for Team Canada at the 2010 World Championship.
Evander Kane:
- He and Ryan Reaves were both born in Vancouver, British Columbia.
- Teammates with Alex Pietrangelo for Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championship and the 2011 World Championship.
- Played with Steve Ott for Team Canada at the 2010 World Championship.
- Represented Canada alongside Jay Bouwmeester at the 2012 World Championship.
Johan Larsson:
- Played with Kyle Brodziak for the Minnesota Wild during the 2012-13 season.
David Legwand:
- Teammates with Scottie Upshall for the Nashville Predators from 2002-2007.
Robin Lehner:
- Played with Brian Elliott for the Ottawa Senators during the 2010-11 season.
Jamie McGinn:
- Played with Paul Stastny for the Colorado Avalanche from 2012-2014.
Matt Moulson:
- Played with Kyle Brodziak for the Minnesota Wild during the 2013-14 season.
Ryan O’Reilly:
- Played with Paul Stastny for the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-2014. Played with Brian Elliott and Kevin Shattenkirk for the Colorado Avalanche during the 2010-11 season.
- Represented Canada alongside Jay Bouwmeester at the 2012 World Championship.
NHL Draft:
- David Legwand (2nd overall) and Scott Gomez (27th overall) were both taken in the first round of the 1998 NHL Draft. Both players were also teammates for the United States at the 1998 and 1999 World Junior Championships.
- Matt Moulson (263rd overall) and Brian Elliott (291st overall) were both chosen in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL Draft.
- Zach Bogosian (3rd overall), Tyler Ennis (26th overall) and Alex Pietrangelo (4th overall) were all selected in the first round of the 2008 NHL Draft. They also represented Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championship.
- Evander Kane (4th overall) and Magnus Paajarvi (10th overall) were both first-round picks in the 2009 NHL Draft.
- Mark Pysyk (23rd overall), Jaden Schwartz (14th overall) and Vladimir Tarasenko (16th overall) were all taken in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft.
- Sam Reinhart (2nd overall) and Robby Fabbri (21st overall) were both first-round picks in the 2014 NHL Draft. They were also both a part of the 2015 Canadian World Junior team that won the gold medal at the tournament.
SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (50), McGinn (47), Foligno (44)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (50), Ristolainen (36), McCabe (22)
Shots: Eichel (67), O’Reilly/Ristolainen (55), Ennis (48)
SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK]
1-10: 3-7-0 (6), 23/32, 9/35, 19/27
11-20: 5-3-2 (12), 21/21, 5/27, 23/29
OVERTIME RESULTS (1-1; 99-102 all-time)
Oct. 27 at PHI: W, 4-3 (GWG-Girgensons)
Nov. 14 vs. SJS: L, 2-1 (GWG-Marleau)
SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-1; 66-52 all-time)
Oct. 21 vs. TOR: W, 2-1 (GDG-Moulson)
Nov. 19 at STL: L, 3-2 (GDG-Steen)
MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Matt Moulson … 6 games … 500 career games played
Goals
Ryan O’Reilly … 3 goals … 100 career goals
Tyler Ennis … 8 goals … 100 career goals
Assists
Zach Bogosian … 6 assists … 100 career assists
Josh Gorges … 8 assists … 100 career assists
RECENT MILESTONES
N/A
