Ristolainen Leads Buffalo Sabres Weekly Three Stars
For the second consecutive week, defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was the top player for the Buffalo Sabres.
It was a light week for the team, who played just twice between Monday, November 9 and Sunday, November 16. The Buffalo Sabres earned three of four possible points and have earned at least a point in each of their last four games.
The week began with a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Brian Gionta, Cody Franson and Sam Reinhart all tallied goals, while Linus Ullmark stopped 36 of 38 shots faced.
After a day of rest, the Sabres returned home to host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. Ryan O’Reilly had the team’s lone goal as they fell in overtime to San Jose by a score of 2-1.
So — who were the top three performers this week for the Buffalo Sabres? Let’s take a look.
3. Josh Gorges
Gorges was held pointless in Thursday’s win, but skated 23:37, second-most on the team. He registered one shot, three hits and two blocks, and also played a team-high 3:27 on the penalty kill.
The Buffalo Sabres defenseman tallied an assist Saturday on O’Reilly’s goal. He also had a team-high four hits as well as two blocks.
Again, he was second on the team in ice time, with 24:15 played, and was one of the top three penalty killers with 2:23 shorthanded ice time. That 24:15 ice time was second-most he’s seen this season; once, he’s eclipsed the 25-minute mark (November 1 vs. NY Islanders).
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2. Ryan O’Reilly
O’Reilly too was held pointless in Thursday’s game, but managed to end the night a plus-1. He won 40% of his faceoffs and played 19:20, including 1:20 on the power play and 2:16 on the penalty kill.
He also had the Buffalo Sabres’ lone goal on Saturday and had a team-high six shots, accounting for nearly 1/5th of the team’s overall shots that night.
O’Reilly also had two takeaways and won 63 percent of his faceoffs. He played 22:46, including 3:19 on the man advantage and 3:02 shorthanded.
Overall through the week, he won 25 of 47 faceoffs (53%).
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1. Rasmus Ristolainen
Ristolainen notched three assists in two games this week, including a pair in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Panthers. He also had the most ice time of any Sabres player in each of the two games, including a season-high 29:01 in Saturday’s game.
That was also a new career-high in ice time for the young blueliner in his NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres to date.
In addition to the 29:01 on Saturday, he played 24:05 on Thursday, also leading the Sabres that night. His total ice time included 2:55 on the power-play and 6:15 on the penalty kill.
I’d say it’s a well-earned first star again for the 21-year-old.
This week, the Buffalo Sabres host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night at First Niagara Center; they’ll then hit the road to face the St. Louis Blues and the Stars for 8 p.m. puck drops Thursday and Saturday.