Buffalo Sabres Weekly Three Stars: Jan. 10

With no weekend games on the schedule for the Buffalo Sabres, the team is finished with its game play until Tuesday when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. The Buffalo Sabres played three games in four nights this past week and lost all three. Overall, the Buffalo Sabres are on a seven-game losing streak. Even though this week was not a great one, there were still a few players that performed well this week.

Your Buffalo Sabres three stars for the past week are:

Rasmus Ristolainen (D)

Although Ristolainen didn’t register any points this week, he had five shots on goal in three games. He had a team-high four hits in Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils, and had three blocked shots in Thursday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Ristolainen also had four missed shots this week. Overall, Ristolainen had 54:56 ice time over the three games; five shots, four missed shots, seven hits and five blocked shots.

Philip Varone (F)

Varone made his season debut with the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday in his first recall since last January. In his debut against the New Jersey Devils, Varone had a team-high five shots and won 88 percent of his faceoffs, going 7-1 in the dot. Two nights later, he scored his second and third NHL goals in Thursday’s game against Carolina. Varone was a plus-1 and had two shots and two hits that night. He also had one shot, one attempt blocked and one blocked shot on Friday. Overall, he had eight shots in three games and played 42:11 this week.

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Buffalo Sabres Goaltenders

This week, I’m going to split these stars and give both Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth credit.

Enroth played the first two games of the week, stopping 50 of 58 shots faced against New Jersey and Carolina. Neuvirth came in Friday night and earned first-star honors as he stopped 45 of 47 shots faced against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Both Buffalo Sabres goaltenders did what they could to try and keep the team in the running this week – a team that only scored four goals in the three games and got outshot 106-62.

Honorable Mentions

This week, I’ll break the rules again and give two players honorable mentions.

Tyler Ennis had nine shots and two blocked shots in three games this past week. He also had three hits and three missed shots in 56:21 ice time.

Mikhail Grigorenko, recently called up from the American Hockey League, had one goal, one shot, one missed shot, two hits and one blocked shot. He played 41:54 ice time this week and went 13-22 at the faceoff dot.

Buffalo Sabres Week Ahead

The Buffalo Sabres don’t play Saturday or Sunday of this week. The upcoming week sees the Buffalo Sabres play four games from Tuesday till Sunday, three of which are at home. The Detroit Red Wings come in on Tuesday for Dominik Hasek‘s jersey retirement night. Former Buffalo Sabres forwards Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville visit the 716 on Thursday with the Minnesota Wild. The Philadelphia Flyers then come to town on Saturday, with the Sabres visiting the Red Wings in a nationally televised game next Sunday night.