The Buffalo Sabres, coming off a 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, look to finish out their Western Canada road trip with a win tonight over the Calgary Flames.
The teams will drop the puck at 9 p.m. tonight on MSG-Buffalo and SN360.
Following tonight’s game, the Buffalo Sabres return home to host the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Tonight’s game is the first of two meetings between the Sabres and Flames this season. They won’t meet again until Thursday, March 3, when the Flames head to Buffalo for a 7 p.m. matchup.
Last season, the Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames split the season series. Buffalo won the first matchup on December 11 by a close score of 4-3 before Calgary took the second meeting of the season on January 27, by a score of 4-1.
Matt Moulson had a pair of goals against the Flames last season, with Marcus Foligno and Zemgus Girgensons adding tallies of their own. (Now-former Buffalo Sabres forward Chris Stewart had the other goal.)
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The Sabres are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Flames and 2-7-1 on the road.
The Buffalo Sabres haven’t won in Calgary for, well…. a long time. The last time the Sabres won in Calgary was October 18, 2003 – a 2-0 victory.
Players on that Sabres team included Daniel Briere, Maxim Afinogenov, Ales Kotalik, Miroslav Satan and Mika Noreen. So yeah – you could say it’s been a while.
A few players to watch tonight for the Buffalo Sabres include forward Matt Moulson, who has six goals in his last six games against the Flames, Evander Kane (five points in 5 career games) and Ryan O’Reilly, who not only leads the team in points and is tied for the lead in both goals and assists, but also has 10 points (3-7) in his last eight games against Calgary.
O’Reilly and Kane each have seven points in their last seven games, while O’Reilly is also on a five-game point streak.
Zemgus Girgensons has three points in as many career games against the Flames, while David Legwand has five points in his last five games versus Calgary.
Jamie McGinn is on a six-game point streak heading into tonight’s game, with two goals and five assists in that time. Rasmus Ristolainen has 13 points (3-10) in his last 15 games.
Ristolainen also continues to hold a penalty-free streak while averaging 24:10 ice time per game. He’s one of just three defensemen league-wide with an average ice time of over 20 minutes and no penalty minutes; Brian Dumoulin and Matt Tennyson are the others.
McGinn and O’Reilly’s streaks are two of the longest active streaks in the NHL.
Another storyline to look at heading into tonight’s game: the possibility that Ryan O’Reilly could get a chance to play alongside his brother, Cal O’Reilly, recalled by the Buffalo Sabres from the AHL’s Rochester Americans ahead of this road swing.
Left winger Johnny Gaudreau leads the Flames with nine goals, 17 assists and 26 points in 27 games this season, including a team-high five power-play points.
Center Sean Monahan is just one pooint away from 20 on the season (8-11), while Jiri Hudler has 17 points in 25 games.
Overall, the 11-4-3 Buffalo Sabres head into tonight’s game sitting at 13th in the Eastern Conference. They’ll facea Flames team that is pretty much at their level – 11-4-2 with 27 games played, a near-identical record. The difference here: the Flames are on a three-game winning streak, which could mean a little bit of trouble for the struggling-as-of-late Buffalo Sabres.
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Will the Buffalo Sabres come out tonight’s meeting with the Calgary Flames victorious, or will they just get burned?