The Ducks are going to have to dig deep and find an extra gear tonight if they hope to come out of Buffalo with two points. After earning victories over the Blue Jackets and Penguins, the Ducks appeared to hit a roadblock in the form of fatigue against the New York Rangers (3-1 L) on Tuesday. Two days later, they came out of the gates sluggish in Boston and lost again by a 3-1 score. Perhaps the tough schedule - five games in eight days - and the flights have simply taken a toll on them. Whatever the case may be, a win tonight would certainly go a long way.
They'll look to even their two-game season series with Buffalo, which opened with a 4-2 Sabres victory on October 21 at Honda Center. Kiefer Sherwood and Sam Steel provided the goals for Anaheim, which enters tonight's contest with a 15-17-5 all-time record vs. Buffalo along with a 7-6-4 mark at KeyBank Center. Oddly enough, the road team has won the last five games between these two teams, including two for the Ducks. Adam Henrique leads active Ducks in career scoring vs. Buffalo with 20 points (6g/14a) and a +13 rating in 22 games.
Usually it's the home team that awaits the arrival of the visiting club, but that's not the case this time. The Ducks have been in Buffalo since early Friday morning (around 12:30 a.m. to be exact), and practiced yesterday afternoon. The Sabres, though, had a road game against the Washington Capitals last night and didn't get into Buffalo until approximately 2 a.m. Johan Larsson scored the Sabres' lone goal in a 2-1 loss against the Capitals, a game that saw Buffalo outshoot the defending Stanley Cup champions, 37-24. Buffalo had a two-man advantage in the final minutes of regulation courtesy of a power play and an empty net, but couldn't find the equalizer on Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby. Sabres forward Sam Reinhart had his career-high 11-game point streak end, while linemates Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner each had seven-game point streaks snapped.
The Sabres have lost two in a row and three of their last four (1-2-1), and enter tonight's game in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 20-11-5 record (45 points). They've gone 11-4-2 at home and recently had a franchise-tying 10-game winning streak from November 8-27.
The Sabres have gone 11-5-3 since Skinner, Eichel and Reinhart were put together on November 13. Since then, the trio has posted staggering numbers in the 19 games they've played together. Eichel has 27 points (10g/17a) and a +11 rating, Reinhart has 22 points (6g/16a) and a +9 rating, and Skinner has 18 points (13g/5a) and a +9 rating. With 25 goals already this season, Skinner is on pace to score the second-most goals in a season in Sabres history (57), trailing only Alexander Mogilny (76 in 1992-93).
