Game Preview: 3/12/16 vs. CAR

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Thursday, March 10
Buffalo 2 at Montreal 3
Goals: Deslauriers, Gionta
Goalie: Lehner (31 saves/34 shots)
PP: 0/2; PK: 3/4; Shots: Buffalo 38 – Montreal 34

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 294)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 69 games
Tyler Ennis (upper body, Dec. 31; injured reserve) – 32 games
Cody Franson (neck, Feb. 21) – 10 games
Ryan O’Reilly (lower body, Feb. 21; injured reserve) – 10 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
N/A

UPCOMING GAMES
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.
Tuesday, March 22: Buffalo at Carolina, 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 26: Winnipeg at Buffalo, 1 p.m.

TODAY’S GAME

HURRICANES at SABRES

• This is the second of three meetings between the Sabres and Hurricanes this season.
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Carolina, 4-1, in Buffalo on Nov. 27
• Next meeting: Saturday, March 22 in Carolina
• The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Hurricanes; 5-5-0 at home.
• This is the 194th game all-time between Buffalo and Carolina/Hartford; Buffalo has a 100-69-24 series record.
• The Sabres are 57-31-8 at home against the Hurricanes/Whalers all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 12-9-2 all-time on March 12.
• March 12, 2011: Marcus Foligno records his first NHL assist against Montreal.
• March 12, 2012: Tyler Myers becomes the Sabres’ all-time leader in overtime goals by a defenseman with his third NHL overtime goal against Montreal.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Today’s game is the 10th of 11 afternoon games for the Sabres this season; the next will be on Saturday, March 26 vs. Winnipeg.
• The Sabres are looking for their third consecutive win against the Hurricanes for the first time since the team won five straight games against Carolina from April 18 to Dec. 28, 2006.
• A win tonight would give the Sabres wins in four straight home games against the Hurricanes for the first time since they won five in a row from Oct. 20, 2006 to Jan. 17, 2009.
• Evander Kane ranks third in the league with 4.1 shots per game.

HOT AGAINST CAROLINA

• Matt Moulson has 19 points (6+13) in his last 15 games against the Hurricanes, including 12 points (4+8) in his last eight home games against Carolina.
• Brian Gionta enters tonight’s game on a four-game point streak against the Hurricanes, with five points (3+2) in those games.
• Cal O’Reilly has scored in his last two games against the Hurricanes.
• Zach Bogosian has three assists in his last three games against Carolina. Six of Bogosian’s 26 career multi-point games have come against the Hurricanes.
• Chad Johnson is 5-1-0 in six career games against Carolina with a .930 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average.

ROBBIN’ LEHNER
Robin Lehner’s .926 save percentage through 20 games played is the fourth-best in the league among goalies with at least 20 games played this season. In his last 10 games, Lehner is 3-5-3 with a .936 save percentage and a 2.08 goals-against average.

FINISHING STRONG AFTER THE BREAK
Buffalo is 561-431-196 (.555) all-time in games after the All-Star break. This includes a record of 110-78-34 (.572) in those games since the lockout. The Sabres are 7-7-5 (.500) since the All-Star break so far this season.
Note: These totals do not include games after breaks for the Olympic Games.

JACK ATTACK

• With his goal on Monday 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.
• Eichel is ranked in the top five among NHL rookies in goals (T-2nd, 20), assists (3rd, 26), points (2nd, 46) and shots (1st, 208).
• With 46 points (20+26) in 69 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+26) and Sam Reinhart (19+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 one more goal 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 is ranked 10th in the NHL 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) leads all NHL forwards in average ice time per game and Evander Kane (21:12) ranks 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 23:35 per game in his 73 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 19:04 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 (16:46 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 29 of 69 games this season, posting an 8-18-3 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 24 of the team’s 69 games this season, going 9-12-3 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-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.

Dan Bylsma:

• Coached Jordan Staal for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2009-2012.

Zach Bogosian: 

• Represented the United States alongside Ron Hainsey at the 2009 World Championship. Bogosian and Hainsey also played together from 2008-2011 for the Atlanta Thrashers and from 2011-2013 for the Winnipeg Jets.

Nicolas Deslauriers:

• Shares a birthday with Andrej Nestrasil. Both players were born on Feb. 22, 1991. The two were also selected in the third round of the 2009 NHL Draft. Nestrasil went 75th overall and Deslauriers was waken 84th overall.

Carlo Colaiacovo

• He and Jeff Skinner were both born in Toronto, Ontario, and they also both played together for Team Canada at the 2011 World Championship.
• Teammates with Jay McClement for the St. Louis Blues from 2008-2011.  They also represented Canada together at the 2002 and 2003 World Junior Championships.

Jack Eichel:

• Played with Jaccob Slavin for the United States at the 2014 World Junior Championship.
• Represented the United States alongside Justin Faulk at the 2015 World Championship.

Chad Johnson:

• He and Cam Ward were both born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Evander Kane:

• Played with Ron Hainsey from 2009-2011 for the Atlanta Thrashers and from 2011-2013 for the Winnipeg Jets.
• Played with Jeff Skinner for Team Canada at the 2011 and 2012 World Championships. Cam Ward was also on the 2012 squad.

NHL Draft:

• Mark Pysyk (23rd overall) and Jeff Skinner (7th overall) were both taken in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft.
• Johan Larsson (56th overall) and Justin Faulk (37th overall) were both second-round picks in the 2010 NHL Draft.
• Elias Lindholm (5th overall) and Rasmus Ristolainen (8th overall) were both selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft.
• Jack Eichel (2nd overall) and Noah Hanifin (5th overall) were both first-round picks in the 2015 NHL Draft. They also played together for the United States during the 2015 World Junior Championship.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (165), Kane (153), Foligno (144)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (139), Ristolainen (115), McCabe (93)
Shots: Kane (240), Eichel (208), Ristolainen (173)

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: 3-4-2 (8), 20/22, 3/26, 15/21

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