Game Preview: 10/16/21 vs. Arizona

Posted on October 15, 2021 by | Leave a comment

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

Game Notes NHL Stats Rosters

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:

Player, Pos. How Acquired Pronunciation Notes
Craig Anderson, G Free agency AN-duhr-suhn Ranks among the NHL’s active leaders in wins (6th, 291), saves (4th, 18,251) and shutouts (T-6th, 42).
Will Butcher, D Trade (NJD) BUH-chuhr Led all NJD defensemen in assists (92) and ranked second among Devils blueliners in points (106) since entering the NHL in 2017-18.
Robert Hagg, D Trade (PHI) HAG Averaged 15:40 of ice time over 34 games in 2020-21, recording five points (2+3) and leading PHI defensemen with 100 hits.
John Hayden, C Free Agency HAY-dihn Has compiled 31 points (13+18) in 185 career NHL games for CHI, NJD and ARI.
Vinnie Hinostroza, C Free Agency hihn-oh-STROH-za Recorded 12 points (4+8) in 17 games for CHI last season after being acquired via trade from FLA on April 2.
Mark Pysyk, D Free Agency PEH-sihk Played in 125 games for the Sabres from 2012 to 2016 after being selected by Buffalo in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft.

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

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Postgame Report: 10/14 vs. Montreal

Posted on October 14, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Final Score

1st 2nd 3rd OT SO Final SOG
Canadiens
(0-2-0)		 0 1 1 – – 1 31
Sabres
(1-0-0)		 2 2 0 – – 5 36

Game Summary
Event Summary

Top Notes

  • Tonight’s 5-1 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.
  • With his two first-period assists, Colin Miller has recorded his first multi-point game since Jan. 24 at WSH. Dating back to last season, Miller now has five assists in his last five games played.
    • Miller also now has five assists in his last five games played against the Canadiens.
  • Zemgus Girgensons scored a goal and added an assist for his first multi-point game since Feb. 23, 2020.
  • Vinnie Hinostroza recorded an assist on Buffalo’s fourth goal to notch his first point as a Sabre.
  • Buffalo went 3-for-6 on the power play tonight with power-play tallies from Kyle Okposo, Victor Olofsson and Tage Thompson. The last time the Sabres scored at least three power-play goals in the same game was Jan. 24, 2021 at WSH.
    • Since making his NHL debut on March 28, 2019, Olofsson is tied for ninth in the league with 21 tallies on the power play.

Tonight’s Goaltenders

Tonight’s Stats
Team Goaltender Decision GA SA
Canadiens
 Montembeault L 5 36
Sabres Anderson W 1 31
Updated Season Stats
Team Goaltender Record SV% GAA
Canadiens Montembeault 0-1-0 .861 5.00
Sabres Anderson 1-0-0 .968 1.00

 

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Game Preview: 10/14/21 vs. Montreal

Posted on October 13, 2021 by | Leave a comment

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

Game Notes NHL Stats Rosters

LAST GAME
N/A

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

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
10/8: Placed D Brandon Davidson on waivers
10/9: Assigned D Brandon Davidson to Rochester (AHL)
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
Saturday, Oct. 16: Arizona at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
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.

TONIGHT’S GAME
CANADIENS at SABRES

  • This is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Canadiens this season.
  • Last meeting: Montreal defeated Buffalo 3-1 in Buffalo on Jan. 30, 2020
  • Next meeting: Friday, Nov. 26 in Buffalo
  • The Sabres are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games against the Canadiens; 5-3-2 at home.
  • This is the 286th game all-time between Buffalo and Montreal; Buffalo has a 130-114-41 series record.
  • The Sabres are 75-41-27 at home against the Canadiens all-time.

THIS DATE IN SABRES HISTORY

  • The Sabres are 9-10-1 all-time on October 14.
  • October 14, 1971: Mike Robitaille scores his first goal as a member of the Sabres.
  • October 14, 2006: Chris Drury records his first and only hat trick in a Sabres uniform in a 7-4 win over the New York Rangers.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

  • This is the first meeting between the Sabres and Canadiens since Jan. 30, 2020, a 3-1 Canadiens win in Buffalo. The 623 days that have passed mark the longest time between games that the Sabres and Habs have experienced in their 285 previous meetings.
  • Jeff Skinner has recorded 20 points (14+6) in 21 games against Montreal since the beginning of the 2013-14 season, including eight points (5+3) in six games against the Canadiens since joining the Sabres in 2018-19.
  • Rasmus Dahlin has recorded six assists in six career games against the Canadiens, including at least an assist in each of his last four contests against Montreal.
  • Drake Caggiula has three points (2+1) in his last two games against the Canadiens.

OPENING NIGHT

  • Tonight’s game marks the 51st season-opener in franchise history.
  • The Sabres are 25-20-5 all-time in season-openers; 17-11-5 when opening at home.
  • Buffalo is 22-21-7 all-time in their first home game of the season. This is the team’s seventh season-opener in the last eight seasons to take place at home.
  • The Sabres have previously opened their season against the Canadiens seven times, going 3-2-2 in those contests.
    • Buffalo has hosted Montreal for its home opener 10 times in franchise history. The Sabres are 5-2-3 all-time in home openers against the Canadiens.

GOOD FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Sabres have had a newly acquired player score in six of their last 10 season-openers: Taylor Hall and Tobias Rieder (Jan. 14, 2021 vs. WSH), Jason Pominville (Oct. 5, 2017 vs. MTL), Jack Eichel (Oct. 8, 2015 vs. OTT), Zemgus Girgensons (Oct. 2, 2013 at DET), Steve Ott (Jan. 20, 2013 vs. PHI) and Ville Leino (Oct. 7, 2011 vs. ANA). Each player scored on his first shot, except for Eichel, who scored on his second shot, and Rieder, who scored on his third.

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

Player, Pos. How Acquired Pronunciation Notes
Craig Anderson, G Free agency AN-duhr-suhn Ranks among the NHL’s active leaders in wins (6th, 291), saves (4th, 18,251) and shutouts (T-6th, 42).
Will Butcher, D Trade (NJD) BUH-chuhr Led all NJD defensemen in assists (92) and ranked second among Devils blueliners in points (106) since entering the NHL in 2017-18.
Robert Hagg, D Trade (PHI) HAG Averaged 15:40 of ice time over 34 games in 2020-21, recording five points (2+3) and leading PHI defensemen with 100 hits.
John Hayden, C Free Agency HAY-dihn Has compiled 31 points (13+18) in 185 career NHL games for CHI, NJD and ARI.
Vinnie Hinostroza, C Free Agency hihn-oh-STROH-za Recorded 12 points (4+8) in 17 games for CHI last season after being acquired via trade from FLA on April 2.
Mark Pysyk, D Free Agency PEH-sihk Played in 125 games for the Sabres from 2012 to 2016 after being selected by Buffalo in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft.

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: N/A
Blocked Shots: N/A
Shots: N/A

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

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 … 3 games played … 200 career games played
Zemgus Girgensons … 11 games played … 500 career games played

Goals
Kyle Okposo … 2 goals … 200 career goals

Assists
Colin Miller … 5 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 … 9 wins … 300 career wins

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A

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Training Camp Resources

Posted on September 23, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Sabres Training Camp Roster

Practice Groups

Player Headshots

Blue-Gold Scrimmage Rosters

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SABRES AGREE TO TERMS ON 3-YEAR DEAL WITH DAHLIN

Posted on September 22, 2021 by | Leave a comment

The Buffalo Sabres have agreed to terms with defenseman Rasmus Dahlin on a three-year contract with an AAV of $6 million.

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Highlights:
  • Led all Sabres defensemen in points and was one of two Sabres to play in all 56 games during the 2020-21 season.
  • Recorded his 100th career point with an assist vs. NJD (4/8/2021), becoming the second-youngest and second-fastest (Phil Housley) Sabres defenseman to reach the milestone after making his NHL debut with the team.
  • Named to the NHL’s All-Rookie team in 2018-19 after he led rookie defensemen and ranked third among all NHL rookies with 44 points (9+35) in 82 games.
  • Represented Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics and both the 2017 and 2018 IIHF World Junior Championships.

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