Buffalo Sabres Hit Road To Face St. Louis Blues

By Melissa Kania | Nov 19, 2015

After a pair of home games, the Buffalo Sabres hit the road for two matchups with the St. Louis Blues and the Dallas Stars. It all begins November 19, as the Sabres visit St. Louis to face a Blues team that’s been doing pretty well for themselves this season.

Heading into tonight’s game, the Blues are third in the Western Conference with a record of 12-6-1, just five points behind first-place Dallas. They’re most recently coming off a 3-1 loss to Columbus on Tuesday and now host the Sabres in the first of two meetings between the teams.

The Sabres clock in at 13th in the Eastern Conference, with a record of 8-9-1 and 17 points.

Following tonight’s game, the teams will meet again in just a few short days as they hit the ice at First Niagara Center on November 23.

One piece that could help the Buffalo Sabres in tonight’s matchup: Evander Kane, who appears to be set to return from his MCL injury that’s kept him out since October 27. Zach Bogosian also recently returned to the lineup, making his season debut in Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Zemgus Girgensons remains out after suffering an upper-body injury. He’ll miss at least two games, as he didn’t take the road trip with the team.

Another player who’s been solid for the Buffalo Sabres: Ryan O’Reilly, who led all NHL forwards in ice time per game (21:30) entering Wednesday’s games. O’Reilly had the Sabres’ lone goal in Tuesday’s loss and is also ranked seventh (58%) in the league in faceoff percentage, and sixth in the NHL with 431 faceoffs taken this season.

O’Reilly needs just four more goals to reach 100 in his NHL career.

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Heading into tonight’s game, the Buffalo Sabres are on a three-game road winning streak, their first since March 2012. In order to beat that, they’ll have to snap a six-game losing streak against the Blues.

One high point for the Buffalo Sabres so far this season: they’ve been shooting. Buffalo has outshot their opponents in 10 of the first 18 games this season. They’re also above 20% in power-play, currently going 14-for-58 on the season, third-best in the league entering Wednesday night.

The Sabres have also led their opponent in Corsi in nine of 18 games.

Right winger Vladimir Tarasenko leads the Blues with 18 points in as many games this season, including a team-high 11 goals. Troy Brouwer, Jori Lehtera and Alex Pietrangelo each have eight assists. Defenseman Colton Parayko is another player to watch out for; he’s second on the team in points (12) and is a plus-10 on the season.

The Blues have a few of their big players out with injuries, however. Lehtera was hospitalized after taking a stick to the throat area during Tuesday’s game. The team was off Wednesday and there was no update. Parayko is day-to-day with a lower-body injury suffered in Monday’s game against Winnipeg; he took part in warmups Tuesday, but didn’t play, and his status for tonight is unknown.

For the Sabres, O’Reilly leads the way with 15 points in 18 games, including team-highs in goals (6) and assists (9). Jack Eichel also has six assists. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is second on the team in scoring, with 11 points (4-7) in 18 games.

It’s uncertain yet whether it’ll be Chad Johnson or Linus Ullmark in goal for the Sabres, though Ullmark played Tuesday, and it’s possible we could see “Ocho Cinco” in net tonight. He hasn’t allowed a five-on-five goal in his last 191:51 of ice time (all situations) and has stopped 70 consecutive even-strength shots prior to Patrick Marleau’s OT game-winner on Saturday.

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Tonight’s game carries an 8 p.m. start; the same is true for Saturday’s game in Dallas, so don’t forget to take a little extra time to relax before settling down on your couch for pregame and the game itself. Martin Biron will be on tonight’s broadcast, taking the place of Brad May — and if that isn’t reason enough to watch, I’m not sure what is. Who doesn’t love Marty?

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