Game Preview: 2/4/20 vs. Colorado

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Saturday, February 1
Columbus 1 at Buffalo 2 (OT)
Goals: Rodrigues, Eichel
Goalie: Hutton (22 saves/23 shots)
PP: 0/0; PK: 2/2; Shots: Buffalo 24 – Columbus 23

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 244)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Matt Hunwick (neck, Oct. 3; injured reserve) – 52 games
Vladimir Sobotka (knee, Nov. 9; injured reserve) – 36 games
Tage Thompson (shoulder, Nov. 19; injured reserve) – 32 games
Victor Olofsson (lower body, Jan. 4; injured reserve) – 10 games
Linus Ullmark (lower body, Jan. 30; injured reserve) – 2 games
Zach Bogosian (illness, Feb. 1) – 1 game
Brandon Montour (lower body, Feb. 1) – 1 game
Kyle Okposo (upper body, Feb. 1; injured reserve) – 1 game
Rasmus Dahlin (upper body, Feb. 4) – 0 games
Johan Larsson (lower body, Feb. 4) – 0 games
Curtis Lazar (illness, Feb. 4) – 0 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
1/29: Recalled G Jonas Johansson from Rochester (AHL)
1/30: Placed G Linus Ullmark on IR
1/31: Recalled F Jean-Sebastien Dea from Rochester (AHL)
2/4: Recalled F Rasmus Asplund from Rochester (AHL); Placed F Kyle Okposo on IR

UPCOMING GAMES
Thursday, Feb. 6: Detroit at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 7: Buffalo at NY Rangers, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 9: Anaheim at Buffalo, 3 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 11: Detroit at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 13: Columbus at Buffalo, 7 p.m.

TONIGHT’S GAME
AVALANCHE at SABRES

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Avalanche this season.
• Last meeting: Colorado defeated Buffalo 3-0 in Colorado on March 9, 2019.
• Next meeting: Wednesday, Feb. 26 in Colorado
• The Sabres are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Avalanche; 3-5-2 at home.
• This is the 146th game all-time between Buffalo and Colorado; Buffalo has a 62-59-24 series record.
• The Sabres are 38-23-11 at home against the Avalanche all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 13-7-3 all-time on February 4.
• February 4, 1971: Eddie Shack records the second hat trick in franchise history in a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
• February 4, 2012: Ryan Miller passes Dominik Hasek for the most wins in franchise history with his 235th career win at NY Islanders. Miller would finish his Sabres career with 284 regular-season wins.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Brandon Montour has totaled five points (2+3) in five career games against the Avalanche, making Colorado the only NHL team that he has recorded a point per game against.
• Michael Frolik has recorded a point in six of his eight meetings with the Avalanche since the beginning of the 2017-18 season (5+1).
• Since the beginning of January, the Sabres have gone 8-for-28 on the power play. Their conversion rate of 28.6 percent during that stretch ranked as the fourth-best rate in the league in 2020 entering play Monday.
• Jack Eichel enters tonight’s game seeking the second four-game goal streak of his career (last: Dec. 10 to 17, 2019).
• Sam Reinhart has totaled 13 points (6+7) in the Sabres’ last 13 contests, including at least a point in nine of the last 11 (6+6).
• Carter Hutton has started both of the Sabres’ last two games, stopping 49 of the 52 shots he faced in those contests (.942).

HOME COOKING

• Tonight’s game is the fourth in a 20-day stretch during which the Sabres will play nine of 10 games at home. The lone road game during that span will take place on Feb. 7 at NY Rangers.
• The team is averaging 3.23 goals per game at home this season, which would mark Buffalo’s best home scoring rate since the 2007-08 season (3.39).
• With 41 points (23+18) in 26 home games this season, Jack Eichel’s 1.58 points per game at home tied for fourth-most in the league entering play Monday. His plus-18 rating at home ranked second.
• Sam Reinhart (12+14) is also producing at a point-per-game rate through 26 home games this season. Reinhart has totaled 15 points (6+9) in his last 12 games at KeyBank Center, including five multi-point outings.

TEEN TITAN

• Rasmus Dahlin has totaled 74 points (12+62) through his first 126 NHL games, including 30 points (3+27) in 44 games this season.
• With his assist on Jan. 30 vs. Montreal, Dahlin passed Bobby Orr (72) for fourth-most points recorded by an NHL defenseman before his 20th birthday. He now trails only Phil Housley (132), Ray Bourque (79) and Rick Hampton (76) for most points ever recorded by a teenage defenseman.
• Aaron Ekblad’s 61 points (22+39) in 129 games as a teenager led active NHL defensemen for most points before turning 20 until Dahlin recorded his 62nd point with an assist in his 108th NHL game on Dec. 14 at NY Islanders. Andrei Svechnikov is the only active teenager in the NHL with more career points than Dahlin’s 72. He has 83 points (40+43) in 134 career games.
• Entering play Monday, Dahlin’s .59 points per game in his career ranked as the 18th-highest rate among active NHL defensemen with at least 10 career games played. His .681 points per game so far this season represent the best single-season scoring rate by a Sabres defenseman since Brian Campbell (.683) in 2007-08.

SETTING THE PACE

• With his 29th goal in his 49th game of the season on Jan. 28 vs. Ottawa, Jack Eichel topped his previous best total set in the 2018-19 season (77 GP). He now has 31 goals in 51 games played this season.
• Eichel’s output through 52 team games currently has him on pace to finish the season with 49 goals and 103 points, which would be the highest goal and point totals by a Sabre since Pat LaFontaine (53+95) and Alexander Mogilny (76+51) in 1992-93.
• LaFontaine (83 in 1992-93) and Mogilny (78 in 1992-93) are the only Sabres ever to have recorded more even-strength points in a season than the 70 Eichel is currently on pace for.
• Despite missing eight games due to injury, Rasmus Dahlin is currently on pace to record 50 points this season, which would make him the Sabres’ first 50-point defenseman since Garry Galley (54) in 1995-96.
• Sam Reinhart is currently on pace to set career-high totals in goals (28) and points (68).

JACK ATTACK

• Entering play Monday, Jack Eichel’s 31 goals this season ranked fourth among all NHL players and his 65 points tied for seventh in the league.
• Eichel has been held without a point in just three of his last 33 games played. During that stretch, which began with a four-goal performance vs. Ottawa on Nov. 16, Buffalo’s captain has totaled 46 points (23+23) in 33 appearances, also missing one game due to injury.
  • Entering play Monday, Eichel trailed only Artemi Panarin (49) and Evgeni Malkin (47) for the most points in the league during that timeframe.
• Eichel represented the Sabres at NHL All-Star Weekend on Jan. 24 and 25 in St. Louis. With his third consecutive All-Star nod, Eichel became the seventh player in franchise history to represent the team in at least three NHL All-Star Games. His four assists at this year’s event moved him past Rick Martin (7) for the most career All-Star Game points as a member of the Sabres (2+6).
• He joins Martin as the only other player in franchise history to record at least 20 goals and 50 points in each of his first five NHL seasons.
• Eichel’s 60th point of the season on Jan. 14 vs. Vegas made him the first Sabre to reach 60 points in 46 or fewer games since 1992-93 (Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny).
• With his 30th goal on Jan. 30 vs. Montreal, Jack Eichel became the first Sabres player to record 30 goals and 30 assists in a season since Jason Pominville (30+43) in 2011-12. He became the 23rd different player in franchise history to accomplish this feat at least once and tied Gilbert Perreault’s 1974-75 season as the sixth-fewest games needed to reach the 30/30 mark (50).

POINTS IN BUNCHES

• Jack Eichel has recorded 17 multi-point games this season, ranking as the 12th-most in the NHL before Monday’s games. The Sabres are 12-3-2 (.765) in those games.
• Entering play Monday, Eichel’s six multi-goal games tied for fourth-most in the league and his nine multi-assist games tied for 11th-most.
• Eichel has recorded at least three points seven times this season, topping his previous career-high total (6) set in the 2016-17 season. Only Connor McDavid (11), Leon Draisaitl (10), David Pastrnak (9), and Artemi Panarin (8) had more games with at least three points this season entering play Monday.
• Sam Reinhart ranks second on the Sabres with 11 multi-point games this season. The team is 8-2-1 this season (.773) and 39-7-8 (.796) in his career when he records at least two points.

SABRES AMONG LEAGUE-LEADERS (Sabres’ league rankings before 2/3 games)

• Eichel: 3 OTG (T-2nd), 23 EVG (3rd), 7 GWG (3rd), 31 G (4th), 44 EVP (5th), 65 PTS (T-7th), 20 PPP (T-10th)
• Hutton: 2 SO (T-10th)
• Olofsson: 9 PPG (T-8th)
• Ristolainen: 158 hits (T-10th)

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Ristolainen (158), Girgensons (84), McCabe (69)
Blocked Shots: McCabe (67), Ristolainen (58), Jokiharju (48)
Shots: Eichel (170), Skinner (133), Reinhart (105)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 8-1-1 (17), 38/24, 12/39, 23/30
11-20: 2-6-2 (6), 21/35, 2/26, 21/29
21-30: 3-4-3 (8), 34/34, 4/33, 23/32
31-40: 4-5-1 (9), 24/32, 4/23, 23/30
41-50: 5-5-0 (10), 30/32, 7/29, 21/29
51-60: 1-1-0 (2), 3/4, 1/3, 3/3

OVERTIME RESULTS (5-6; 125-134 all-time)
Oct. 7 at CBJ: L, 4-3 (Texier, 2:08)
Oct. 9 vs. MTL: W, 5-4 (Johansson, 1:30)
Oct. 22 vs. SJS: W, 4-3 (Eichel, 3:13)
Nov. 14 vs. CAR: L, 5-4 (Hamilton, 2:28)
Nov. 27 vs. CGY: L, 3-2 (Lindholm, 1:17)
Nov. 30 at TOR: L, 2-1 (Tavares, 1:45)
Dec. 7 at VAN: L, 6-5 (Miller, 3:21)
Dec. 8 at EDM: W, 3-2 (Miller, 1:13)
Dec. 14 at NYI: L, 3-2 (Beauvillier, 3:04)
Jan. 2 vs. EDM: W, 3-2 (Eichel, 1:09)
Feb. 1 vs. CBJ: W, 2-1 (Eichel, 0:36)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (1-1; 76-70 all-time)
Oct. 11 vs. FLA: W, 3-2 (GDG-Eichel)
Oct. 28 vs. ARI: L, 3-2 (GDG-Schmaltz)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Linus Ullmark … 4 games … 100 career games played
Henri Jokiharju … 10 games … 100 career games played
Assists
Jack Eichel … 8 assists … 200 career assists
Points
Zach Bogosian … 6 points … 200 career points
Johan Larsson … 9 points … 100 career points

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A