Game Preview: 2/16/16 at OTT

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Sunday, February 14
Colorado 1 at Buffalo 4
Goals: Eichel, Kane, Reinhart, Foligno
Goalie: Lehner (34 saves/35 shots)
PP: 0/3; PK: 6/6; Shots: Colorado 35 – Buffalo 21

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 249)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 57 games
Tyler Ennis (upper body, Dec. 31; injured reserve) – 20 games
Johan Larsson (lower body, Feb. 9) – 4 games
Daniel Catenacci (upper body, Feb. 12; injured reserve) – 2 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
2/10: Recalled F Justin Bailey from Rochester (AHL); Placed F Zemgus Girgensons on IR
2/12: Recalled F Philip Varone from Rochester (AHL); Placed F Daniel Catenacci on IR
2/13: Assigned F Philip Varone to Rochester (AHL)
2/14: Activated F Zemgus Girgensons from IR

UPCOMING GAMES
Friday, Feb. 19: Buffalo at Columbus, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 21 Pittsburgh at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 24: Buffalo at Anaheim, 10:30 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 26: Buffalo at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 27: Buffalo at Los Angeles, 11 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at SENATORS

• This is the third of four meetings between the Sabres and Senators this season.
• Next meeting: Friday, March. 18 in Buffalo
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Ottawa, 3-2, in Ottawa on Jan. 26
• The Sabres are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Senators; 3-7-0 on the road
• This is the 127th game all-time between Buffalo and Ottawa; Buffalo has a 60-49-17 series record.
• The Sabres are 27-27-10 on the road against the Senators all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 12-4-3 all-time on February 16.
• February 16, 2004: Miroslav Satan scores a career-high four goals, including his 250th NHL goal and 500th NHL point, leading the Sabres to a 7-2 victory vs. Atlanta.
• February 16, 2012: Thomas Vanek scores his 225th NHL goal in a 7-2 loss at Philadelphia, passing Miroslav Satan for seventh-most goals in team history.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• If he dresses for tonight’s game, Brian Gionta will become the 51st American to appear in 900 NHL games. He will be the first Sabres player to reach this milestone since Robyn Regehr did so on April 3, 2013 vs. Toronto.
• Entering play Monday, Evander Kane ranked third in the league with 4.2 shots per game.
• Ryan O’Reilly (57.2%) ranked eighth in the league in faceoff percentage before Monday’s games. O’Reilly leads the league with 1,443 faceoffs taken, accounting for 42.4% of Buffalo’s total faceoffs.
• O’Reilly has nine assists in his last seven games.

SABRES-SENATORS

• With a win tonight, the Sabres would have two wins against the Senators in a season for the first time since 2011-12. The Sabres are also seeking wins in consecutive visits to Ottawa for the first time since the team won five straight road games against the Senators from April 10, 2010 to Nov. 5, 2011.
• Buffalo and Ottawa have had 12 of their last 16 matchups decided by a single goal.
• The Sabres are 8-4 all-time in shootouts against the Senators. Their 12 shootouts against Ottawa is one shy of their total against Boston for most against a single opponent.
• Ryan O’Reilly has eight points (2+6) in eight career games against Ottawa, including five points (1+4) in five road games.
• Mike Weber has seven points (1+6) in 25 career games against the Senators, his highest total against any team.

ROAD WARRIORS
The Sabres enter tonight’s game with points in a franchise-record eight straight road games against divisional opponents, having gone 6-0-2 in those games. Their last regulation road loss to a divisional opponent came on Oct. 17 at Tampa Bay.

LOGGING BIG MINUTES

• Rasmus Ristolainen was ranked 11th in the NHL before Monday’s games with an average ice time of 25:19 per game. Only Alexei Zhitnik (four times) has averaged more minutes per game in a full season with the Sabres.
• Entering Monday’s games, Ryan O’Reilly (21:54) led all NHL forwards in average ice time per game and Evander Kane (21:00) ranked third. The pair currently own the two highest average career ice times by Sabres forwards. Michael Peca (20:18) is the only other forward with an average over 20 minutes.
• With an average ice time of 23:36 per game in his 61 games played since joining the Sabres last season, Zach Bogosian owns the third-highest average ice time ever recorded by a Sabres player, trailing only Alexei Zhitnik (531 GP, 25:32) and Christian Ehrhoff (192 GP, 23:55).

Note: The NHL began tracking ice time in the 1997-98 season.

YOUNG GUNS

• Jack Eichel has 24 points (8+16) in his last 25 games, a stretch which included a career-best, four-game point streak (2+4) from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5.
• Eichel entered play Monday ranked in the top five among NHL rookies in goals (T-3rd, 17), assists (T-3rd, 21), points (T-2nd, 38) and shots (1st, 169).
• If they maintain their current pace, Eichel (17+21) and Sam Reinhart (17+9) would be the first pair of Sabres rookies to surpass the 30-point mark since Thomas Vanek (48) and Jason Pominville (30) did so in 2005-06. The Sabres haven’t had two or more rookies reach 35 points in the same season since Ray Sheppard (65), Pierre Turgeon (42) and Calle Johansson (42) each did so in 1987-88.
• Eichel (17) and Reinhart (17) are also on pace to become the second pair of rookies in Sabres history to each record 20 goals in the same season. The first pair was Danny Gare (31) and Peter McNab (22) in 1974-75.
• With 38 points (17+21) in 57 games, Eichel is on pace for 55 points this season. If he reaches the 50-point mark, he will become the ninth Sabres rookie to record more than 50 points in a season. He would be the first since Derek Plante (1993-94) and the second-youngest to do so, trailing only Phil Housley (1982-83).

OUTSHOOTING OPPONENTS
The Sabres have outshot their opponents in 24 of 57 games this season, posting a 7-16-1 record in those games. Last season, the team finished the season 5-5-0 in 10 total games when outshooting their opponents.

POSSESSION PROGRESSION
The Sabres have led their opponent in even-strength shot attempts (corsi) in 23 of the team’s 57 games this season, going 9-11-3 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. (Data courtesy of war-on-ice.com)

BUF-OTT CONNECTIONS
Former Senators:

• David Legwand and Robin Lehner were both acquired via trade from the Ottawa Senators on June 26, 2015. Lehner was drafted by the Senators in the second round (46th overall) of the 2009 NHL Draft and went 30-36-13 with a .914 save percentage and a 2.88 goals-against average in 86 games played for Ottawa. Legwand spent one season (2014-15) with the Senators and had 27 points (9+18) and a plus-1 rating in 80 games.

Carlo Colaiacovo:

• Represented Team Canada alongside Marc Methot and Dion Phaneuf at the 2011 World Championship.

Nicolas Deslauriers:

• Played with Jean-Gabriel Pageau for the Gatineau Olympiques (QMJHL) during the 2010-11 season.

Marcus Foligno: 

• Played for Dave Cameron for Team Canada at the 2011 World Junior Championship held in Buffalo.

Brian Gionta:

• Gionta and Shane Prince were both born in Rochester, New York.

Josh Gorges:

• He and Kyle Turris share a birth date. Gorges was born on Aug. 14, 1984, and Turris was born five years later on Aug. 14, 1989.
• Played with Dion Phaneuf for Team Canada at the 2004 World Junior Championship.

Johan Larsson:

• Represented Team Sweden alongside Erik Karlsson at the 2012 World Championship.

Mark Pysyk:

• Played with Curtis Lazar for the Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL) from 2010-2012.

Ryan O’Reilly:

• Played alongside Craig Anderson for the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-2011.

Sam Reinhart:

• Represented Team Canada alongside Curtis Lazar at the 2014 and 2015 World Junior Championships. Reinhart tied for the tournament lead with 11 points (5+6) and Lazar served as team captain as Canada took the gold medal at the tournament.

NHL Draft:

• Zach Bogosian and Erik Karlsson were both drafted in the first round of the 2008 NHL Draft. Bogosian was taken third overall and Karlsson was selected 15th overall.
• Tonight’s game features three second-picks from the 2009 NHL Draft. Ryan O’Reilly was selected 33rd overall by Colorado, Alex Chiasson was taken 38th overall by Dallas and Robin Lehner went 46th overall to Ottawa.
• Marcus Foligno (104th overall) and Chris Wideman (100th overall) were both selected in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Draft.
• Zemgus Girgensons (14th overall) and Cody Ceci (15th overall) were taken one pick apart in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft
• Rasmus Ristolainen and Curtis Lazar were both first-round picks in the 2013 NHL Draft. Ristolainen was selected eight overall and Lazar was taken 11 picks later at 17th overall.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Kane (127), Deslauriers (123), Foligno (118)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (115), Ristolainen (91), McCabe (64)
Shots: Kane (197), Eichel (169), Ristolainen (134)

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
21-30: 4-5-1 (9), 29/28, 8/29, 20/23
31-40: 3-6-1 (7), 20/27, 4/35, 17/21
41-50: 5-5-0 (10), 22/26, 6/25, 26/28
51-60: 3-2-2 (8), 21/24, 3/24, 18/21

OVERTIME RESULTS (2-2; 100-103 all-time)
Oct. 27 at PHI: W, 4-3 (GWG-Girgensons, 2:29)
Nov. 14 vs. SJS: L, 2-1 (GWG-Marleau, 2:59)
Dec. 12 vs. LAK: W, 2-1 (GWG-O’Reilly, 3:19)
Feb. 6 at BOS: L, 2-1 (GWG-Marchand, 2:32)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-4; 66-55 all-time)
Oct. 21 vs. TOR: W, 2-1 (GDG-Moulson)
Nov. 19 at STL: L, 3-2 (GDG-Steen)
Dec. 1 at DET: L, 5-4 (GDG-Richards)
Dec. 19 vs. CHI: L, 3-2 (GDG-Kane)
Feb. 4 vs. BOS: L, 3-2 (GDG-Spooner)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Brian Gionta … 1 game … 900 career games played
Robin Lehner … 4 games … 100 career games played
Assists
Josh Gorges … 2 assists … 100 career assists
Points
Ryan O’Reilly … 5 points … 300 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
Justin Bailey … 1st NHL game … Feb. 11 at PHI
Mark Pysyk … 100th NHL game … Feb. 14 vs. COL