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LAST GAME
Monday, March 7
Buffalo 4 at Toronto 3 (SO)
Goals: Pysyk, Eichel, Kane; GDG-Reinhart
Goalie: Johnson (30 saves/33 shots)
PP: 0/4; PK: 2/3; Shots: Toronto 33 – Buffalo 27
CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 286)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 67 games
Tyler Ennis (upper body, Dec. 31; injured reserve) – 30 games
Cody Franson (neck, Feb. 21) – 8 games
Ryan O’Reilly (lower body, Feb. 21; injured reserve) – 8 games
TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
N/A
UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, March 10: Buffalo at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 12: Carolina at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Wednesday, March 16: Montreal at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Friday, March 18: Ottawa at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 19: Buffalo at Toronto, 7 p.m.
TONIGHT’S GAME
RANGERS at SABRES
- This is the second of three meetings between the Sabres and Rangers this season.
- Next meeting: Saturday, April 2 in New York
- Last meeting: New York defeated Buffalo, 6-3, in New York on Jan. 25
- The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Rangers; 3-6-1 at home.
- This is the 173rd game all-time between Buffalo and New York; Buffalo has a 78-61-33 series record.
- The Sabres are 47-27-13 at home against the Rangers all-time.
THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY
- The Sabres are 10-8-5 all-time on March 8.
- March 8, 1972: Rene Robert makes his Buffalo Sabres debut in a 6-3 loss at California.
- March 8, 1991: Dale Hawerchuk scores to become the 31st NHL player to reach the 1,000-point mark in a 5-3 loss to Chicago.
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
- After going 2-0-2 in their last four games, the Sabres are looking to gain a point in a fifth consecutive game tonight for the first time since the team compiled points in nine straight (7-0-2) from March 10 to 27, 2012.
- Buffalo needs a win tonight to avoid the team’s first nine-game losing streak to the Rangers in franchise history. The Sabres have not gone winless in nine straight games against the Rangers since going 0-10-2 in the first 12 meetings in franchise history, spanning the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons.
- The Rangers are seeking their first-ever five-game winning streak in Buffalo.
- With his goal last night at Toronto, Jack Eichel became the 14th Sabres rookie to score 20 goals in a season.
- Evander Kane ranks third in the league with 4.1 shots per game.
BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s 12th of 15 sets of back-to-back games this season, which began last night with a 4-3 shootout win at Toronto. The Sabres are 5-7-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 5-5-1 in the second game so far this season. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to-back sets this season is: four points (1), three points (1), two points (6), one point (0) and zero points (3).
ROBBIN’ LEHNER
- Robin Lehner’s .931 save percentage through 18 games played is the third-best in the league among goalies with at least 10 games played.
- In his last nine games, Lehner is 3-3-3 with a .946 save percentage and a 1.75 goals-against average, making it the best nine-game stretch of his career by both metrics.
FINISHING STRONG AFTER THE BREAK
Buffalo is 561-429-196 (.556) all-time in games after the All-Star break. This includes a record of 110-76-34 (.577) in those games since the lockout. The Sabres are 7-5-5 (.559) since the All-Star break so far this season.
Note: These totals do not include games after breaks for the Olympic Games.
JACK ATTACK
- Jack Eichel enters tonight’s game on the first three-game goal streak of his career and has totaled four points (3+1) in those three games.
- With his goal last night at Toronto, Eichel (19 years, 131 days) became the youngest 20-goal scorer in Sabres history, besting Pierre Turgeon (19 years, 140 days on Jan. 15, 1989) by nine days.
- Eichel leads the Sabres with 20 goals this season. If he finishes the season with the team lead, he will be the first Sabres rookie to lead the team in goals since Ray Sheppard did so in the 1987-88 season.
- After last night’s game, Eichel was ranked in the top five among NHL rookies in goals (2nd, 19), assists (3rd, 25), points (2nd, 45) and shots (1st, 200).
- With 45 points (20+25) in 67 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).
YOUNG GUNS
- Jack Eichel (20+25) and Sam Reinhart (18+14) are the first pair of Sabres rookies to reach 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.
- If Reinhart scores two more goals this season, he and Eichel will become the third pair of rookies in Sabres history to each record 20 goals in the same season, joining Danny Gare (31) and Peter McNab (22) in 1974-75 and Gilbert Perreault (38) and Steve Atkinson (20) in 1970-71.
LOGGING BIG MINUTES
- Rasmus Ristolainen was ranked 10th in the NHL after last night’s game 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.
- Ryan O’Reilly (21:51) led all NHL forwards in average ice time per game after last night’s game and Evander Kane (21:08) ranked second. 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 23:34 per game in his 71 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).
- Jack Eichel’s average ice time of 18:59 is the highest ever recorded by a Sabres rookie forward, topping the next highest (Cody Hodgson- 20 GP, 17:16) by more than a minute. Sam Reinhart (16:43 this season) is the only other Sabres rookie forward to top 16 minutes per game.
Note: The NHL began tracking ice time in the 1997-98 season.
OUTSHOOTING OPPONENTS
The Sabres have outshot their opponents in 27 of 67 games this season, posting an 8-16-3 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 67 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-NYR CONNECTIONS
Former Sabres:
- Dominic Moore was a member of the Sabres for part of the 2008-09 season, contributing four points (1+3) in 18 games.
Former Rangers:
- Dave Barr played six games for New York during the 1983-84 season.
- Chad Johnson played six games for the rangers from 2009 to 2011 and posted a 4-1-1 record with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
Local Players:
- Dan Girardi was born in Welland, Ontario.
Dan Bylsma:
- Coached Tanner Glass for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2012-2014.
Zach Bogosian:
- Played with Tanner Glass for the Winnipeg Jets during the 2011-12 season.
Brian Gionta:
- Played with Dominic Moore for the Montreal Canadiens during the 2009-10 season.
Johan Larsson:
- Played with Jesper Fast and Oscar Lindberg for Team Sweden at the 2011 World Junior Championship held in Buffalo.
Robin Lehner:
- Played with Jesper Fast and Oscar Lindberg for Team Sweden at the 2011 World Junior Championship held in Buffalo.
Jake McCabe:
- Teammates with J.T. Miller for the United States at the 2013 World Junior Championship.
- Played with Kevin Hayes for the United States at the 2014 World Championship.
Ryan O’Reilly:
- Played with Eric Staal for Team Canada at the 2013 World Championship.
NHL Draft:
- Matt Moulson (263rd overall) and Tanner Glass (265th overall) were both chosen in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL Draft.
- Evander Kane (4th overall) and Chris Kreider (19th overall) were both first-round picks in the 2009 NHL Draft.
- Mark Pysyk (23rd overall) was taken one pick before Kevin Hayes (24th overall) in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft.
- Johan Larsson (56th overall) was selected one pick before Oscar Lindberg (57th overall) in the second round of the 2010 NHL Draft.
SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (158), Kane (150), Foligno (135)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (136), Ristolainen (114), McCabe (91)
Shots: Kane (229), Eichel (200), Ristolainen (162)
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: 4-3-3 (11), 29/30, 6/34, 30/33
61-70: 3-2-2 (8), 16/15, 3/22, 11/15
OVERTIME RESULTS (2-3; 100-104 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)
March 1 vs. EDM: L, 2-1 (GWG-McDavid, 3:48)
SHOOTOUT RESULTS (2-6; 67-57 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)
Feb. 16 at OTT: L, 2-1 (GDG-Ryan)
March 5 vs. MIN: L, 3-2 (GDG-Pominville)
March 7 at TOR: W, 4-3 (GDG-Reinhart)
UPCOMING MILESTONES (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Assists
Josh Gorges … 2 assists … 100 career assists
RECENT MILESTONES
N/A
