Sharpen Up: April 16, 2022 | Sabres take on Flyers at home tonight

The Buffalo Sabres open up a home-and-home set against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at KeyBank Center.
Faceoff is at 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30. Tickets are on sale now.
The two teams will meet again in the City of Brotherly Love tomorrow night at 5.
Here's what you need to know.

Yesterday's practice

From the Practice Report:
Mattias Samuelsson is progressing in his recovery from a lower-body injury and is expected to play at least one of Buffalo's back-to-back games against Philadelphia this weekend, coach Don Granato said.
Samuelsson missed Thursday's 6-2 loss against the St. Louis Blues due to the injury. He remained absent for practice on Friday.
The Sabres host the Flyers on Saturday night. The two teams meet again in Philadelphia on Sunday.
"That's the hope, that he's back in soon," Granato said.

The 22-year-old defenseman has played 36 games for Buffalo, recording nine assists. In his last ten games, he has five assists while averaging 20:52 of ice time.
Granato shuffled the forward lines in a continued effort to give players looks alongside various teammates with the season winding down. He said the lines could change again prior to Saturday's meeting with the Flyers.
"Reintegration and integrating different guys and different parts is so much easier right now for our group and that's really nice as a coach," Granato said.
For all the line combinations and more, click here.

Tonight's matchup

• This is the second of three meetings between the Sabres and Flyers this season.
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Philadelphia 6-3 in Buffalo on Jan. 22.
• Next meeting: Sunday, April 16 in Philadelphia
• The Sabres are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games against the Flyers; 5-4-1 at home.
• This is the 191st game all-time between Buffalo and Philadelphia; Buffalo has a 73-91-26 series record.
• The Sabres are 46-36-11 at home against the Flyers all-time.
• Tonight's game opens Buffalo's third and final home-and-home set this season, which concludes tomorrow night in Philadelphia.
• The Sabres have played in 171 previous home-and-home series in franchise history, going 95-51-25 (.629) in the home games and 59-82-30 (.433) in the road games in the previous series.
• The team is 75-67-29 (.523) all-time in the first game of the previous series and 79-66-26 (.538) in the second.
• Buffalo's points breakdown in these previous series is as follows: four points (32), three points (26), two points (69), one point (18), zero points (26).
• The Sabres have won each of their last three games against the Flyers and are seeking a win tomorrow to earn their first four-game winning streak against Philadelphia since the team won five straight from Oct. 10, 2001 to Oct. 22, 2002.

• A win tonight would give Buffalo three straight home victories over Philadelphia for the first time since Oct. 17, 2006 to Dec. 21, 2007.
• The Sabres have outscored the Flyers 17-6 in the last three meetings between the clubs. Buffalo has scored at least five goals in each of the three matchups.
• The Sabres have earned at least a point in each of their last five meetings with Philadelphia. A point tonight would give Buffalo its first six-game point streak against the Flyers since Dec. 7, 1989 to March 24, 1991.
• Tonight's game also opens Buffalo's 15th of 16 sets of back-to-back games this season, which will conclude in Philadelphia on Sunday.
• The Sabres are 4-8- 2 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 3-7-4 in the second game so far this season.
• Buffalo's point breakdown in back-to-back sets this season is: four points (0), three points (4), two points (3), one point (2) and zero points (5).

• If he dresses, tonight will be Alex Tuch's 300th career NHL game.
• Tuch has five points (2+3) in his last five games.

• Tage Thompson has 18 points (10+8) in his last 17 contests, recording five multi-point performances during that span.
• Thompson has four points (2+2) in his last four games against the Flyers.
• Victor Olofsson has 11 points (6+5) in his last 10 games and has tallied multi-point games in four of those 10 contests.
•The Sabres are 10-0-0 this season when Olofsson records a multi-point performance.
• Jeff Skinner has 14 points (8+6) in his last 14 games and has tallied at least a point in 11 of those 14 contests.
• He has registered two separate five-game point streaks since March 20 (March 20 at VAN to March 28 at CHI and April 1 vs. NSH to April 8 at FLA).
• Skinner has five points (3+2) in his last two games against Philadelphia, including three points (2+1) in the most recent meeting on Jan. 22 in Buffalo.

• Rasmus Asplund has three points (2+1) and a plus-3 rating over his last two games.
• Kyle Okposo enters tonight's contest with a four-game point streak against the Flyers, tallying five points (0+5) during that span.

Vote now for the Rico Award

The Buffalo Sabres are once again giving fans the opportunity to vote for the recipient of the Rick Martin Memorial Award. "The Rico," established in 2021, is presented annually to the player whom fans believe best embodies what it means to be a Buffalo Sabre, through on-ice excellence, resiliency, and dedication to the community.
Fans can visit Sabres.com/RicoVote to cast their vote now. The initial polls will close on April 16 at 11:59 p.m.
The three players with the most votes will move on to a final round of voting from April 20 through April 23.
Read more here.

Power answers your questions

Owen Power hopped on the official Sabres Instagram account yesterday to answer some burning fan questions.

Check it out here.