Can The Sabres Stay On The Winning Track In Philadelphia?

11/16/24 – 7:00 pm EST at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA

Record

Buffalo – 8-8-1 | 17 points – 6th place in the Atlantic Division

Philadelphia – 7-8-2 | 16 points – 6th place in the Metropolitan Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 17.3% (22nd)

Penalty Kill – 76.8% (24th)

Philadelphia

Power Play – 18.5% (20th)

Penalty Kill – 87.9% (3rd)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 16 GP, 11 G, 7 A, 18 PTS

Alex Tuch: 17 GP, 5 G, 11 A, 16 PTS

JJ Peterka: 15 GP, 7 G, 8 A, 15 PTS

Philadelphia

Travis Konecny: 17 GP, 9 G, 10 A, 19 PTS

Matvei Michkov: 15 GP, 6 G, 7 A, 13 PTS

Travis Sanheim: 17 GP, 4 G, 5 A, 9 PTS

Starting Goalies

Buffalo – Devon Levi (2-4-0, 3.87 GAA, .870 save %)

Philadelphia – Ivan Fedotov (2-3-0, 3.98 GAA, .862 save %)

Related: Goalie James Reimer Claimed Off Waivers By Sabres

Line Combinations and Pairings

Buffalo

Forwards

Zach Benson – Ryan McLeod – Alex Tuch

JJ Peterka – Dylan Cozens –- Jack Quinn

Jiri Kulich – Peyton Krebs – Jason Zucker

Beck Malenstyn – Sam Lafferty – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Bowen Byram

Owen Power – Jacob Bryson

Dennis Gilbert – Connor Clifton

Ex., Henri Jokiharju

Goaltenders

Devon Levi

James Reimer

Injuries

Tage Thompson (day-to-day – lower-body)

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (day-to-day – unspecified)

Jordan Greenway (day-to-day – unspecified)

Mattias Samuelsson (out – lower body)

Notes

Buffalo has earned a win in four of its last five games in Philadelphia (4-1-0) and has scored five or more goals in each of the team’s wins in that span.

The Sabres have recorded nine power-play goals in their last nine games, including at least one in each of their last five games. A power-play goal in tonight’s game would give Buffalo its longest power-play goal streak since Oct. 27 to Nov. 10, 2022 (eight games).

Rasmus Dahlin has notched 12 points (4+8) in his last nine games, including at least one point in five straight games (3+4). If Dahlin records a point in today’s game, it will mark the first time he has notched a point streak of six or more games since Oct. 14 to 29, 2023 (eight games; 2+7) and his six-game point streak would be tied for the secondlongest of his career.

Among all NHL teams since Nov. 1, the Sabres are tied for fourth in wins (4) and tied for 10th in points (8). Buffalo has registered at least one power-play goal in six of its seven games played in the month of November and it ranks tied for second in power-play goals (7) and fourth in power-play percentage (30.4) among all NHL teams in November. The Sabres have recorded 26 goals in seven games this month, the third-most goals scored among all NHL teams in November.

Five Sabres skaters (Bowen Byram; 1.00; Rasmus Dahlin; 1.14; JJ Peterka, 1.00; Tage Thompson, 1.00; Alex Tuch, 1.00) have recorded at least one point per game played in November.

Bowen Byram leads all NHL skaters in the month of November in plus/minus (+10). He is one of only three NHL skaters who have averaged 25 or more minutes of time on ice to record a positive plus/minus in that span and the only others (Dahlin; Ryan Pulock) have a plus-1 rating. Byram (175:02 TOI) is one of two Sabres skaters since the NHL began tracking time on ice in 1997-98 to record a plus/minus of plus-10 or better while skating 175 or more minutes in any seven-game span. Tyler Myers (twice) is the only other Buffalo skater to do so.

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