Buffalo Sabres Opponent Outlook: Minnesota Wild

By Melissa Kania | Sep 22, 2015

Last season, the Minnesota Wild obliterated the Buffalo Sabres in the two meetings between the teams; there’s no nicer way to put it. They outscored Buffalo by a margin of 13-3, including a 7-0 defeat to close the season series. The Sabres will look to be more competitive and overall sharper against the Wild this coming season in hopes of better results.

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The Wild won the first meeting between the teams last season by a score of 6-3.

Nino Niederreiter scored the first hat trick of his NHL career, while Ryan Carter, Jared Spurgeon and Kyle Brodziak also scored.

Charlie Coyle and Justin Fontaine each had two assists, while Carter and Brodziak added assists for two-point nights as well. Mikko Koivu, Ryan Suter, Jason Pominville, Matt Dumba and Mikael Granlund each notched assists.

Jared Spurgeon led all skaters with eight shots on goal as Minnesota outshot Buffalo, 39-28.

Torrey Mitchell, Rasmus Ristolainen and Zemgus Girgensons scored for Buffalo. Girgensons led the team with a two-point night, while Drew Stafford, Matt Moulson, Nicolas Deslauriers, Nikita Zadorov and Tyler Ennis each registered assists. Ristolainen and Ennis combined for eight of the team’s 28 total shots on goal.

In the second meeting, Devan Dubnyk registered a shutout in his first game with his new team.

Zach Parise, Thomas Vanek, Brodziak, Dumba, Spurgeon, Matt Cooke and Erik Haula scored for the Wild.

Pominville led the Wild with three assists. Overall, 12 of 18 Wild skaters registered at least a point in the win, with six of those players notching multiple points. Vanek led the Wild with eight shots on goal.

The only Sabres skaters who didn’t register at least a minus-1 that night were Ennis and Zadorov. Josh Gorges and Andrej Meszaros were a team-worst minus-3 each.

This season, the Wild will look a little different — but not nearly as different as the Sabres, with newcomers like Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly, Evander Kane, David Legwand and co.

Through free agency, the Wild lost former Buffalo Sabres forward Chris Stewart, who signed with the Anaheim Ducks, as well as Kyle Brodziak, who signed with the St. Louis Blues.

The one player gained: former Buffalo Sabres forward – and Rochester Americans player – Zac Dalpe, who signed a contract with the Wild on July 1st. Re-signing with Minnesota were Erik Haula, Devan Dubnyk, Ruslan Fedotenko, Ryan Carter, Nate Prosser and Mikael Granlund.

The Wild didn’t make any splashes in the trade market this offseason.

The Wild finished last season sixth in the Western Conference, reaching the 100-point mark with a record of 46-28-8. They ousted the St. Louis Blues in six games in the first round of the playoffs and made it to the Western Conference semifinals before being swept by the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks.

After two meetings in the preseason – including last night’s – the Sabres and Wild will meet twice in the regular season as well. They’ll first face off for a bout in Minnesota on Tuesday, January 12th at 8 p.m. The Wild then come to Buffalo on Saturday, March 5th for a 1 p.m. matinee meeting to close out the season series.

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