Game Preview: 3/16/16 vs. MTL

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, March 12
Carolina 2 at Buffalo 3 (OT)
Goals: Eichel (2), Foligno
Goalie: Johnson (28 saves/30 shots)
PP: 0/4; PK: 2/3; Shots: Carolina 30 – Buffalo 24

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 298)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 70 games
Tyler Ennis (upper body, Dec. 31; injured reserve) – 33 games
Cody Franson (neck, Feb. 21) – 11 games
Ryan O’Reilly (lower body, Feb. 21; injured reserve) – 11 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
3/14: Signed G Jason Kasdorf to an entry-level contract

UPCOMING GAMES
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.
Monday, March 28: Buffalo at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
CANADIENS at SABRES

• This is the fifth and final meeting between the Sabres and Canadiens this season.
• Last meeting: Montreal defeated Buffalo, 3-2, in Montreal on March 10
• The Sabres are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Canadiens; 5-4-1 at home
• This is the 271st game all-time between Buffalo and Montreal; Buffalo has a 124-108-38 series record.
• The Sabres are 71-38-25 at home against the Canadiens all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 10-6-6 all-time on March 16.
• March 16, 1975: Gilbert Perreault scores three goals and assists on three more as the Sabres defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 11-3, on the road.
• March 16, 1989: The Sabres get a goal from six different scorers (Andreychuk, Arniel, Foligno, Hogue, Krupp, Turgeon) in a 6-1 win at Hartford.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Buffalo has more wins against Montreal (124) than against any other NHL team. The Sabres have 121 wins against the Bruins, but have played nine more games against Boston than against Montreal.
• The Sabres have gone 16-8-2 in their last 26 games against the Canadiens. The road team has won 10 of the last 15 matchups between these teams.
• Jack Eichel has seven points (5+2) in his last six games, including points in each of his last four home games (4+2).
• Ryan O’Reilly has 10 points (4+6) in 10 career games against Montreal.
• Marcus Foligno has five points (3+2) in his last five games against the Canadiens.
• Evander Kane (2+1), Zach Bogosian (0+2) and Nicolas Deslauriers (1+1) each have points in their last two games against Montreal.
• Brian Gionta enters tonight with points in his last three games (1+2) and is seeking his first four-game point streak since he had points in five straight from Nov. 6 to 16, 2010 (4+4).
• Evander Kane ranks third in the league with 4.2 shots per game.

NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN
The Sabres and Canadiens are meeting for the second time in seven days after Montreal’s 3-2 win in Montreal on Thursday. For the Sabres, this is the eighth of eight sets of games this season in which they faced the same opponent both home and away in a three-game span. Buffalo finished the season 3-3-2 in the road games and enters tonight 1-5-1 in the home games.

ROBBIN’ LEHNER
Robin Lehner’s .926 save percentage through 20 games played was the fourth-best in the league among goalies with at least 15 games played this season entering play Tuesday. 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 562-431-196 (.555) all-time in games after the All-Star break. This includes a record of 111-78-34 (.574) in those games since the lockout. The Sabres are 8-7-5 (.525) 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 March 7 at Toronto, Jack 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 22 goals this season, the highest total by a Sabres player since 2011-12 (Jason Pominville, 30) and the highest by a Sabres rookie since 2005-06 (Thomas Vanek, 25). If he finishes the season with the team lead, Eichel 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 (2nd, 22), assists (3rd, 26), points (2nd, 48) and shots (1st, 212).
• With 48 points (22+26) in 70 games, Eichel is on pace for 56 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 (22+26) and Sam Reinhart (19+15) 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 25:20 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 23:37 per game in his 74 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 19:06 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 (16:49 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 70 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 70 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-MTL CONNECTIONS
Former Sabres:

• Paul Byron was selected by the Sabres in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2007 NHL Draft. With Buffalo, he appeared in eight games during the 2010-11 season and recorded two points (1+1).
• Torrey Mitchell played 60 games for the Sabres during parts of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. He had 14 points (7+7) and 30 penalty minutes during his time in Buffalo.

Former Canadiens:

• Brian Gionta played for the Canadiens from 2009-2014, registering 173 points (97+76) in 303 games played.  He also served as the team’s captain from 2010-2014.
• Josh Gorges was a member of the Canadiens from 2006-2014, registering 88 points (13+75) over 464 games played.

Carlo Colaiacovo:

• He and P.K. Subban were both born in Toronto, Ontario.
• Colaiacovo and Lars Eller played together for the St. Louis Blues during the 2009-10 season.

Jack Eichel:

• Played with Stefan Matteau for the United States at the 2014 World Junior Championship.

Cody Franson:

• Played with Mike Brown and Ben Scrivens for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2011-2013.

Evander Kane:

• He and P.K. Subban both represented Canada at the 2009 World Junior Championship.

Johan Larsson:

• Played with Torrey Mitchell for the Minnesota Wild from during the 2012-13 season.

David Legwand:

• Played with Victor Bartley for the Nashville Predators from 2012-2014.

Jake McCabe:

• Represented the United States alongside Alex Galchenyuk at the 2013 World Junior Championship and the 2014 World Championship.

NHL Draft:

• Johan Larsson (56th overall by Minnesota) and Devante Smith-Pelly (42nd overall by Anaheim) were both taken in the second round of the 2010 NHL Draft.
• Zemgus Girgensons (14th overall), Alex Galchenyuk (3rd overall) and Stefan Matteau (29th overall) were all first-round selections in the 2012 NHL Draft.
• Rasmus Ristolainen (8th overall) and Michael McCarron (25th overall) were both first-round picks in the 2013 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (168), Kane (155), Foligno (147)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (142), Ristolainen (117), McCabe (95)
Shots: Kane (246), Eichel (212), Ristolainen (174)

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: 4-4-2 (10), 23/24, 3/30, 17/24

OVERTIME RESULTS (3-3; 101-104 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)
March 12 vs. CAR: W, 3-2 (GWG-Eichel, 4:59)

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