Game Preview: 4/9/17 at TBL

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, April 8
Buffalo 0 at Florida 3
Goals: N/A
Goalie: Lehner (34 saves/37 shots)
PP: 0/2; PK: 3/4; Shots: Florida 37 – Buffalo 30

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 400)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (blood clots, Oct. 13; injured reserve) – 81 games
Johan Larsson (wrist, Jan. 3; injured reserve) – 45 games
Taylor Fedun (foot, March 20) – 9 games
Kyle Okposo (illness, March 28) – 5 games
Anders Nilsson (undisclosed, April 5) – 2 games
Marcus Foligno (knee, April 8) – 1 game

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
4/3: Recalled F Alexander Nylander from Rochester (AHL)
4/5: Recalled G Linus Ullmark from Rochester (AHL)
4/6: Assigned G Linus Ullmark to Rochester (AHL)
4/7: Recalled G Linus Ullmark from Rochester (AHL); Assigned D Brendan Guhle to Rochester (AHL) from Prince George (WHL)
4/8: Signed F Sean Malone to a two-year, entry-level contract

TONIGHT’S GAME
SABRES at LIGHTNING

• This is the fourth and final meeting between the Sabres and Lightning this season.
• Last meeting: Tampa Bay defeated Buffalo 2-1 in Buffalo on March 4
• The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Lightning; 3-7-0 on the road.
• This is the 94th game all-time between Buffalo and Tampa Bay; Buffalo has a 52-34-7 series record.
• The Sabres are 28-16-3 on the road against the Lightning all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 5-2-1 all-time on April 9 (regular season only).
• April 9, 1980: Bob Sauve records the first playoff shutout in franchise history with a 6-0 win vs. Vancouver.
• April 9, 1988: John Tucker sets a franchise playoff record with four goals in a 6-2 win vs. Boston.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The Sabres are 23-15-7 all-time in the final game of the regular season, including a 6-3-2 record since 2005-06.
• After going 4-9-3 in their first 16 games against Atlantic Division opponents this season, the Sabres are 9-3-1 in their last 13.
• Buffalo is 56-for-65 (86.2%) on the penalty kill in its last 25 games.
• The Sabres need a win tonight to avoid being swept in the season series against the Lightning for the first time ever.

TOPPING TAMPA

• The Sabres’ 28-16-3 (.628) record in Tampa Bay is the team’s best all-time road record against any Eastern Conference opponent. The team’s next best road record against an Eastern conference opponent is its 41-26-11 (.596) mark at Washington.
• Buffalo’s all-time record of 52-33-8 (.602) against Tampa Bay is the team’s third-best record against any Eastern Conference opponent, trailing only their 87-48-20 (.626) mark against Washington and their 113-67-26 (.612) record against Toronto.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s 19th of a league-high 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, which began with a 3-0 loss last night at Florida. The Sabres are 8-8-3 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 6-11-1 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 (8), one point (2) and zero points (4).

LOCAL KID MAKES GOOD

• West Seneca native Sean Malone made his NHL debut last night at Florida. Malone become the seventh player born in the Buffalo area to appear in a regular-season game for the Sabres, joining Cole Schneider, Justin Bailey, Marcus Foligno, Patrick Kaleta, Tim Kennedy and Scott Thomas.
• Aside from these seven, 10 other Sabres players in franchise history have been born in New York State:
  • Peter Ciavaglia (Albany); Jerry D’Amigo (Binghamton); Zach Bogosian and Mike Hurlbut (Massena); Tracey Pratt (New York City); Rory Fitzpatrick, Brian Gionta and Derek Whitmore (Rochester); Tim Connolly (Syracuse); Connor Knapp (York)

JACK ATTACK

• In the time since his Nov. 29 return from an injury that sidelined him for 21 games, Jack Eichel is tied for eighth among all NHL skaters with 57 points (24+33) and leads the league with 245 shots on goal.
• Eichel has logged 42 points (16+26) in his last 39 games, including 12 multi-point outings during that stretch. The Sabres are 14-2-0 this season (and 22-5-1 in his career) when he has at least two points.
• Eichel’s .95 points per game rank him 10th among all players with at least 20 games played this season.
• If Eichel records four points tonight, he will be the eighth player in franchise history to record a point per game in one of his first two full NHL seasons, joining Rick Martin (1971-72), Rene Robert (1972-73), Dave Andreychuk (1983-84), Phil Housley (1983-84), Pierre Turgeon (1988-89), Alexander Mogilny (1990-91) and Thomas Vanek (2006-07).

*All rankings as of the end of last night’s game.

THE KANE EVENT

• Evander Kane has scored each of his 27 goals this season in his last 57 games.
• Kane is tied for 15th in the NHL with 24 even-strength goals despite not scoring his first until Dec. 3.
• Since Dec. 1, Kane ranks ninth among all NHL skaters in goals (27) and leads the league in even-strength goals (24).

*All rankings as of the end of last night’s game.

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)

THEY’VE GOT THE POWER

• The Sabres rank first in the league with a 24.6% success rate on the power play.
• Buffalo has not finished a season ranked in the top five in power-play percentage since the 2005-06 season (third, 21.2%) and the team has led the league only once (1991-92, 22.5%)
• The team’s current power-play percentage would rank as the third-best conversion rate in franchise history and the best since the team’s 25.4% mark in 1975-76. It would be the 13th-best season by any team since the league began publishing the stat in 1987-88.

ASSIST-OLAINEN
Rasmus Ristolainen finished last night’s game tied for 34th among all NHL skaters with 39 assists this season.

• Ristolainen has recorded an assist on 20.4 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 five goals to fall below 20 percent.

SABRES AMONG LEAGUE-LEADERS (Sabres’ league rankings after last night’s game)

• Buffalo Sabres: 24.6% PP% (1st)
• Eichel: 4.1 S/GP (1st)
• Foligno: 279 hits (5th)
• Kane: 3.7 S/GP (5th)
• Nilsson: .933 EV SV% (6th), .923 SV% (10th)
• O’Reilly: 21:31 TOI/GP (1st, forwards), 57.9 FO% (5th)
• Ristolainen: 24 PPA (4th), 26:31 TOI/GP (5th), 39 A (T-7th, defensemen)

BUF-TBL Connections
Josh Gorges:

• Represented Canada alongside Braydon Coburn at the 2004 World Junior Championship.

Dmitry Kulikov:

• Teammates with Jason Garrison for the Florida Panthers from 2009-2012.

Anders Nilsson:

• Represented Sweden with Victor Hedman at the 2010 World Championship.

Sam Reinhart:

• Represented Canada alongside Jonathan Drouin at the 2014 World Junior Championship.
• Brayden Point was a member of Team Canada along with Reinhart at the 2015 World Junior Championship.

World Championship:

• Jake McCabe played with Tyler Johnson for the United States at the 2014 World Championship.

NHL Draft:

• Zemgus Girgensons (14th overall) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th overall) were both first-round picks in the 2012 NHL Draft.
• Rasmus Ristolainen (8th overall) and Jonathan Drouin (3rd overall) were both taken in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Foligno (279), Ristolainen (193), Gorges (142)
Blocked Shots: Ristolainen (158), McCabe (114), Gorges (107)
Shots: Kane (258), Eichel (245), O’Reilly (188)

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: 6-4-0 (12), 26/25, 6/25, 24/30
61-70: 2-7-1 (5), 31/39, 9/30, 24/29
71-80: 5-5-0 (10), 21/23, 7/18, 21/24
81-82: 0-1-0 (0), 0/3, 0/2, 3/4

OVERTIME RESULTS (6-6; 108-111 all-time)
Oct. 18 at CGY: L, 4-3 (GWG-Monahan, 2:26)
Nov. 11 vs. NJD: L, 2-1 (GWG-Greene, 0:29)
Dec. 5 at WSH: L, 3-2 (GWG-Johansson, 2:38)
Dec. 6 vs. EDM: W, 4-3 (GWG-Ristolainen, 0:57)
Dec. 16 vs. NYI: W, 3-2 (GWG-Ristolainen, 0:42)
Jan. 5 at CHI: L, 4-3 (GWG-Kane, 0:56)
Jan. 20 vs. DET: W, 3-2 (GWG-Okposo, 4:34)
Jan. 21 at MTL: W, 3-2 (GWG-Bogosian, 1:48)
Jan. 24 at NSH: W, 5-4 (GWG-Eichel, 2:35)
Feb. 2 vs. NYR: L, 2-1 (GWG-Kreider, 3:56)
Feb. 7 vs. SJS: W, 5-4 (GWG-Kane, 1:05)
Feb. 28 vs. NSH: L, 5-4 (GWG-Forsberg, 2:45)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (2-6; 69-64 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)
March 4 vs. TBL: L, 2-1 (GDG-Point)
March 17 at ANA: W, 2-1 (GDG-Girgensons)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Goals
Tyler Ennis … 3 goals … 100 NHL goals
Assists
Brian Gionta … 2 assists … 300 NHL assists
Points
Evander Kane … 1 point … 300 NHL points

RECENT MILESTONES
Alexander Nylander … 1st NHL game … April 3 vs. TOR
Sean Malone … 1st NHL game … April 8 at FLA