Game Preview: 3/18/16 vs. OTT

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Wednesday, March 16
Montreal 3 at Buffalo 2 (OT)
Goals: Bogosian, Foligno
Goalie: Lehner (19 saves/22 shots)
PP: 1/4; PK: 5/6; Shots: Buffalo 43 – Montreal 22

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 301)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clot, Oct. 8; injured reserve) – 71 games
Tyler Ennis (upper body, Dec. 31; injured reserve) – 34 games
Cody Franson (neck, Feb. 21) – 12 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
3/14: Signed G Jason Kasdorf to an entry-level contract
3/16: Activated F Ryan O’Reilly from IR; Assigned F Daniel Catenacci to Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
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.
Tuesday, March 29: Buffalo at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SENATORS at SABRES

• This is the fourth and final meeting between the Sabres and Senators this season.
• Last meeting: Ottawa defeated Buffalo, 2-1 (SO), in Ottawa on Feb. 16
• The Sabres are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Senators; 4-3-3 at home
• This is the 128th game all-time between Buffalo and Ottawa; Buffalo has a 60-49-18 series record.
• The Sabres are 33-22-7 at home against the Senators all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 6-9-4 all-time on March 18.
• March 18, 1997: The Sabres acquire Miroslav Satan from Edmonton in exchange for Barrie Moore and Craig Millar.
• March 18, 2003: Lindy Ruff earns his 211th win as Sabres head coach, passing Scotty Bowman for most in franchise history.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• With a win tonight, the Sabres would have two wins against the Senators in a season for the first time since 2011-12.
• Buffalo and Ottawa have had seven of their last nine meetings in Buffalo – and 13 of their last 17 overall – decided by a single goal. Five of those Sabres home games were decided in overtime or a shootout.
• The Sabres are 8-5 all-time in shootouts against the Senators. Their 13 shootouts against Ottawa tie their total against Boston for most against a single opponent.
• Jack Eichel has seven points (5+2) in his last seven games.
• Evander Kane ranks third in the league with 4.2 shots per game.
• Robin Lehner’s .924 save percentage through 21 games played was the seventh-best in the league among goalies with at least 20 games played this season entering play Tuesday.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game opens up Buffalo’s 13th of 15 sets of back-to-back games this season, which continues tomorrow night in Toronto. The Sabres are 5-7-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 5-6-1 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 (7), one point (0) and zero points (3).

FINISHING STRONG AFTER THE BREAK
Buffalo is 562-431-197 (.555) all-time in games after the All-Star break. This includes a record of 111-78-35 (.574) in those games since the lockout. The Sabres are 8-7-6 (.524) 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, 216).
• With 48 points (22+26) in 71 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 (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 25:22 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 75 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 19:09 is the ninth-highest ever recorded by a rookie forward and the highest ever by 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 30 of 71 games this season, posting an 8-18-4 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 25 of the team’s 71 games this season, going 9-12-4 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.

Josh Gorges:

• 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-round 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: Deslauriers (170), Kane (158), Foligno (150)
Blocked Shots: Gorges (143), Ristolainen (120), McCabe (96)
Shots: Kane (252), Eichel (216), Ristolainen (177)

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
71-80: 0-0-1 (1), 3/2, 1/4, 5/6

OVERTIME RESULTS (4-3; 101-105 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)
March 16 vs. MTL: L, 4-3 (GWG-Byron, 3:15)

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