Game Preview: 2/11/17 at TOR

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Thursday, February 9
Anaheim 5 at Buffalo 2
Goals: Eichel, Ristolainen
Goalie: Lehner (39 saves/43 shots); 1 ENG
PP: 1/2; PK: 3/4; Shots: Anaheim 44 – Buffalo 26

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 262)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clots, Oct. 13; injured reserve) – 54 games
Johan Larsson (wrist, Jan. 3; injured reserve) – 18 games
William Carrier (knee, Feb.4; injured reserve) – 4 games
Zach Bogosian (ribs, Feb. 4; injured reserve) – 4 games
Zemgus Girgensons (middle body, Feb. 9) – 1 game

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
2/6: Signed D Justin Falk to a one-year contract extension worth $650,000; Claimed F Derek Grant off waivers from Nashville; Assigned Grant to Rochester (AHL)
2/9: Recalled F Derek Grant and F Evan Rodrigues from Rochester (AHL); Placed F William Carrier and D Zach Bogosian on IR
2/10: Assigned F Evan Rodrigues to Rochester (AHL)
2/11: Recalled F Evan Rodrigues from Rochester (AHL)

UPCOMING GAMES
Sunday, Feb. 12: Vancouver at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 14: Buffalo at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16: Colorado at Buffalo, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 18: St. Louis at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19: Chicago at Buffalo, 6 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at MAPLE LEAFS

• This is the third of five meetings between the Sabres and Maple Leafs this season.
• Last meeting: Toronto defeated Buffalo 4-3 in Toronto on Jan. 17
• Next meeting: Saturday, March 25 in Buffalo
• The Sabres are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Maple Leafs; 2-5-3 on the road.
• This is the 204th game all-time between Buffalo and Toronto; Buffalo has a 111-66-26 series record.
• The Sabres are 43-40-18 on the road against the Maple Leafs all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 6-10-1 all-time on February 11.
• February 11, 2006: Thomas Vanek scores on two of his seven shots as Sabres top the Florida Panthers 5-3 to improve to 7-0-1 in an eight-game span.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The home team has won 23 of the last 27 games between the Sabres and the Maple Leafs. With a Sabres win tonight, each team will have won in the other’s arena in the same season for the first time since 2012-13.
• Tyler Ennis has 17 points (8+9) in 18 games against the Maple Leafs since the beginning of the 2011-12 season.
• Matt Moulson has 25 points (16+9) in 30 career games against the Maple Leafs.
• Evander Kane has five points (3+2) in five games against Toronto since the beginning of the 2013-14 season.
• Brian Gionta has four points (1+3) in his last four games against the Maple Leafs.

WHO’S HOT?

• Robin Lehner is 5-3-1 with a .927 save percentage so far in 2017.
• Kyle Okposo has points in eight of his last 12 games, including each of his last four (2+2).
• Ryan O’Reilly has 16 points (4+12) in 17 games since returning from injury.
• Jack Eichel has logged 11 points (5+6) in his last 12 games, including five two-point outings.
• Evander Kane has nine points (4+5) in his last nine games.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game opens up Buffalo’s 10th of a league-high 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, which will continue in Buffalo tomorrow night vs. Vancouver. The Sabres are 4-3-2 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 4-4-1 in the second game so far this season. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to-back sets this season is: four points (2), three points (2), two points (2), one point (1) and zero points (2).

THE KANE EVENT
Evander Kane has scored each of his 16 goals this season in his last 31 games, including a team-high 15 even-strength goals. In the period since scoring his first goal of the season on Dec. 3 vs. Boston, he is tied for sixth among all NHL skaters in goals (16), is tied for the league lead in even-strength goals (15) and ranks third in shots on goal (122).

*All rankings before 2/10 games

SOPHOMORE SURGE
In their second full NHL seasons, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart have each improved on their points per game totals from 2015-16.

(82-game pace in parentheses)

ASSIST-OLAINEN
Rasmus Ristolainen entered play Friday tied for 36th among all NHL skaters with 27 assists.

• Ristolainen has recorded an assist on 21.1 percent of his teammates’ goals. Only one Sabres defenseman has ever recorded an assist on more than 20 percent of his teammates’ goals: Phil Housley (22.6%) in 1989-90.
• Ristolainen would need to fail to record an assist on each of his teammates’ next eight goals to fall below 20 percent.

SABRES AMONG LEAGUE-LEADERS (Sabres’ league rankings before 2/10 games)

• Buffalo Sabres: 23.3% PP% (2nd)
• Eichel: 4.0 S/GP (1st)
• Foligno: 183 hits (3rd)
• Kane: 3.5 S/GP (8th)
• Lehner: .923 SV% (10th), .931 EV SV% (9th)
• Moulson: 9 PPG (T-9th)
• Nilsson: .934 EV SV% (5th)
• Okposo: 18 PPP (T-10th)
• O’Reilly: 21:39 TOI/GP (3rd, forwards), 57.7 FO% (7th)
• Ristolainen: 17 PPA (T-3rd), 27:08 TOI (4th), 18 PPP (T-10th), 27 A (T-8th, defensemen)

BUF-TOR CONNECTIONS
Former Maple Leafs:

• Cody Franson was acquired by the Maple Leafs on July 3, 2011 when he was traded from the Nashville Predators. Franson spent four seasons with the Maple Leafs, racking up 115 points (20+95) in 236 games.

Jack Eichel:

• Represented team North America alongside Auston Matthews at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The two also played together for the United States National Development Program in 2013-14.
• Represented the United States alongside Connor Carrick at the 2014 World Junior Championship. The two also played together for the United States National Development Program from 2010-2012.
• Represented the United States alongside Jake Gardiner at the 2015 World Championship.

Evander Kane

• Shares a hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia with Morgan Rielly.

Jake McCabe:

• Played alongside Connor Carrick for the United States National Development Program in 2010-11.
• Represented the United States alongside Jake Gardiner at the 2014 World Championship.

Matt Moulson:

• Played alongside Matt Martin for the New York Islanders from 2009-2013.

Anders Nilsson:

• Played alongside Matt Martin for the New York Islanders from 2011-12 and then again in 2013-14.

Ryan O’Reilly:

• Played alongside Matt Hunwick for the Colorado Avalanche from 2010-2014.
• Represented Canada with Morgan Rielly at the 2016 World Championship.

Kyle Okposo

• Played alongside Matt Martin for the New York Islanders from 2009-2016.
• Represented the United States with James van Riemsdyk at the 2007 and 2008 World Junior Championship.

Sam Reinhart:

• Represented Canada with Morgan Rielly at the 2016 World Championship.

Rasmus Ristolainen:

• Represented Finland alongside Leo Komarov at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

NHL Draft

• Zach Bogosian (3rd overall), Jake Gardiner (17th overall) and Tyler Ennis (26th overall) were all first-round selections in the 2008 NHL Draft.
• Evander Kane (4th overall), Nazem Kadri (7th overall) and Dmitry Kulikov (14th overall) were all first-round selections in the 2009 NHL Draft.
• Morgan Rielly (5th overall) and Zemgus Girgensons (14th overall) were both first-round selections in the 2012 NHL Draft.
• Sam Reinhart (2nd overall) and William Nylander (8th overall) were both first-round selections in the 2014 NHL Draft.
• Jack Eichel (2nd overall) and Mitchell Marner (4th overall) were both first-round selections in the 2015 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Foligno (183), Ristolainen (139), Carrier (96)
Blocked Shots: Ristolainen (126), McCabe (71), Gorges (68)
Shots: Kane (151), Okposo (134), Eichel (133)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 4-4-2 (10), 23/24, 8/35, 26/31
11-20: 3-4-3 (9), 15/26, 6/31, 28/36
21-30: 5-3-2 (12), 31/26, 8/30, 13/24
31-40: 4-4-2 (10), 27/31, 7/34, 21/28
41-50: 4-5-1 (9), 28/33, 6/27, 21/28
51-60: 2-2-0 (4), 12/11, 3/6, 9/13

OVERTIME RESULTS (6-5; 108-110 all-time)
Oct. 18 at CGY: L, 4-3 (GWG-Monahan)
Nov. 11 vs. NJD: L, 2-1 (GWG-Greene)
Dec. 5 at WSH: L, 3-2 (GWG-Johansson)
Dec. 6 vs. EDM: W, 4-3 (GWG-Ristolainen)
Dec. 16 vs. NYI: W, 3-2 (GWG-Ristolainen)
Jan. 5 at CHI: L, 4-3 (GWG-Kane)
Jan. 20 vs. DET: W, 3-2 (GWG-Okposo)
Jan. 21 at MTL: W, 3-2 (GWG-Bogosian)
Jan. 24 at NSH: W, 5-4 (GWG-Eichel)
Feb. 2 vs. NYR: L, 2-1 (GWG-Kreider)
Feb. 7 vs. SJS: W, 5-4 (GWG-Kane)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-5; 68-63 all-time)
Oct. 25 at PHI: L, 4-3 (GDG-Giroux)
Nov. 9 vs. OTT: L, 2-1 (GDG-Ryan)
Nov. 19 vs. PIT: W, 2-1 (GDG-C. O’Reilly)
Nov. 23 vs. DET: L, 2-1 (GDG-Vanek)
Dec. 17 at CAR: L, 2-1 (GDG-Stempniak)
Dec. 20 at FLA: L, 4-3 (GDG-Trocheck)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Nicolas Deslauriers … 3 games … 200 NHL games
Tyler Ennis … 9 games … 400 NHL games
Goals
Tyler Ennis … 5 goals … 100 NHL goals
Points
Rasmus Ristolainen … 4 points … 100 NHL points

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A