Game Preview: 10/16/21 vs. Arizona

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Thursday, October 14
Montreal 1 at Buffalo 5
Goals: Okposo, Girgensons, Olofsson, Bjork, Thompson
Goalie: Anderson (30 saves/31 shots)
PP: 3/6; PK: 4/4; Shots: Buffalo 36 – Montreal 31

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 2)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Mattias Samuelsson (Lower body, Oct. 14; injured reserve) – 1 game
Jack Eichel (Upper body, Oct. 14; injured reserve) – 1 game
Casey Mittelstadt (Upper body) – 0 games
Henri Jokiharju (Lower body) – 0 games

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/10: Loaned F Brandon Biro and D Casey Fitzgerald to Rochester (AHL); placed forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on waivers
10/11: Recalled D Casey Fitzgerald from Rochester (AHL); Loaned F JJ Peterka and D Casey Fitzgerald to Rochester (AHL).

UPCOMING GAMES
Tuesday, Oct. 19: Vancouver at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 22: Boston at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 24: Buffalo at New Jersey, 7 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 25: Tampa Bay at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 28: Buffalo at Anaheim, 10 p.m.

TODAY’S GAME
COYOTES at SABRES

• This is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Coyotes this season.
• Last meeting: Arizona defeated Buffalo 5-2 in Arizona on Feb. 29, 2020
• Next meeting: Saturday, Jan. 29 in Arizona
• The Sabres are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games against the Coyotes; 6-2-2 at home.
• This is the 83rd game all-time between Buffalo and Arizona; Buffalo has a 48-24-10 series record.
• The Sabres are 26-8-8 at home against the Coyotes all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 7-11-3 all-time on October 16.
• October 16, 1982: Phil Housley records his first NHL goal in a 9-2 win at Washington.
• October 16, 2009: Tyler Myers scores his first NHL goal and Jason Pominville scores his 100th NHL goal in a 6-3 win at home against the New York Islanders.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Kyle Okposo’s next goal will be the 200th of his NHL career. Entering Friday’s games, there were 55 U.S.-born players who have reached the 200-goal mark and 60 active NHL players who had scored 200 or more career goals.
• Jeff Skinner has recorded 11 points (6+5) in his last nine games against the Coyotes, including at least a goal in each of his last five games against them.
• Colin Miller notched two assists vs. MTL (10/14) and now has five assists in his last five games played dating back to last season.
• Sabres forwards Drake Caggiula (2020-21), John Hayden (2020-21) and Vinnie Hinostroza (2018-2020) all previously played for Arizona. Coyotes forward Johan Larsson (2013-2020) and goaltender Carter Hutton (2018-2021) both played for the Sabres, and Coyotes assistant coach Phil Housley previously played for (1982-1990) and coached (2017-2019) the Sabres.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Sabres beat the Canadiens 5-1 Thursday night in the team’s home opener. The win matched Buffalo’s largest margin of victory in a season-opening game in franchise history.
  • The Sabres previously notched four-goal wins in three other season openers, most recently on Oct. 10, 2002 vs. NYI.
• Buffalo went 3-for-6 on the power play with goals from Kyle Okposo, Victor Olofsson and Tage Thompson. Since making his NHL debut on March 28, 2019, Olofsson entered Friday’s games tied for ninth in the league with 21 tallies on the power play.
• Zemgus Girgensons scored a goal and added an assist for his first multi-point game since Feb. 23, 2020.
• Colin Miller recorded his first multi-point game (0+2) since Jan. 24 at WSH.

WELCOME TO BUFFALO
The Sabres have six new players on their roster this season:

2021-22 ROSTER NOTES
Of the 23 players on Buffalo’s opening night roster:

• Eight were drafted by the Sabres — five were first-round selections (Pysyk, 2010; Girgensons, 2012; Mittelstadt, 2017; Dahlin, 2018; Cozens, 2019), one was a second-round pick (Asplund, 2016), one was a fourth-round pick (Bryson, 2017) and one was a seventh-round pick (Olofsson, 2014).
  • Mark Pysyk was drafted by the Sabres in 2010 and returned as an unrestricted free agent in 2021.
• Seven were acquired in trades: Bjork, Butcher, Hagg, Jokiharju, Miller, Skinner, Thompson
• Seven were signed as free agents: Anderson, Eakin, Hayden, Hinostroza, Okposo, Ruotsalainen, Tokarski
• Drake Caggiula was claimed off of waivers.
• Seventeen played in Buffalo at some point last season: Asplund, Bjork, Bryson, Caggiula, Cozens, Dahlin, Eakin, Girgensons, Jokiharju, Miller, Mittelstadt, Okposo, Olofsson, Ruotsalainen, Skinner, Thompson, Tokarski
• One played for Buffalo previously: Pysyk
• Five are new to the Sabres this season: Anderson, Butcher, Hagg, Hayden, Hinostroza 

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Eakin (2), Miller (2), Bryson/Caggiula/Girgensons/Hagg/Okposo (1)
Blocked Shots: Hagg (6), Dahlin (3), Pysyk (3)
Shots: Olofsson (5), Okposo (5), Eakin/Thompson (4)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 1-0-0 (2), 5/1, 3/6, 4/4

OVERTIME RESULTS (0-0; 126-138 all-time)
N/A

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (0-0; 81-74 all-time)
N/A

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Games Played
Rasmus Dahlin … 2 games played … 200 career games played
Zemgus Girgensons … 10 games played … 500 career games played

Goals
Kyle Okposo … 1 goal … 200 career goals

Assists
Colin Miller … 3 assists … 100 career assists
Will Butcher … 8 assists … 100 career assists
Rasmus Dahlin … 11 assists … 100 career assists

Points
Mark Pysyk … 8 points … 100 career points

Wins
Craig Anderson … 8 wins … 300 career wins

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A