Sharpen Up: December 8, 2018

The Sabres are back at home this afternoon as the four-game homestand rolls on. Today, it'll be the Philadelphia Flyers who will challenge Buffalo.
It's a 1 p.m. faceoff from KeyBank Center. Duffer and Marty will kick things off with the GMC Game Night pregame show at 12:30. Stick around for lineup news and notes when we hear from coach Phil Housley later this morning.
Here's what you need to know.

Today's matchup

From @SabresPR's Game Notes…
- Jack Eichel recorded his 13th multi-point game of the season with two goals on Tuesday vs. Toronto. Entering play Friday, Eichel's 13 multi-point games tied for third-most in the league this season. He is now five shy of his career-high 18 in a season.

Friday's practice

Phil Housley mixed up Buffalo's power-play units a bit. We have the full story in our Ice Level Practice Report…
The Sabres are 1-for-13 on the power play in their last five games, prompting Housley and his staff to tweak both units at practice.
The first group of five included Eichel playing on his strong side with Tage Thompson on the opposite flank, Jeff Skinner in the middle, Sam Reinhart at the net-front and Rasmus Ristolainen at the point.
Eichel has played primarily on the left this season, with one of the goals for the power play being to set him up for one-timers on his off-side. Playing his strong side opens the door for Eichel to distribute, with another dangerous shot still lurking on the left in Thompson.

"It gives me a couple options for one-timers," Eichel said. "You've got Reino in the middle for one-timers and as a support guy who I think makes a lot of really good plays. ... You've got Skinny around the net, who's obviously shown how good he can be there and Tommer on the backside shooting one-timers, which I think can be very dangerous for us. Then Risto's up to top with the opportunity to shoot the one-timer as well.
"I think it can present a lot of different threats to the opposing team, which is what we want to do. For me, it's distributing and knowing the right times to attack."
In injury news, Carter Hutton and Marco Scandella were both absent on Friday and remain day-to-day with upper-body injuries. The Sabres recalled defenseman Matt Tennyson and goaltender Scott Wedgewood in their absence.
Tennyson will play Saturday, which will mark his first NHL appearance since April 2. He averaged 15:08 in 15 games with the Sabres last season. Wedgewood is likely to serve as Linus Ullmark's backup against the Flyers.
The full report, including the team's thoughts on the current four-game homestand can be found here.

Skills Challenge tickets are on sale now

Prospects Update

Check out this week's Prospects Update here.

Here's a taste:
It's that time of year again.
Preliminary rosters are being announced for the 2019 World Junior Championship in British Columbia, and four Sabres prospects have already been invited to camp with their respective countries.
Defenseman Oskari Laaksonen and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will vie for spots on Finland's roster, while Matej Pekar will go to camp with the Czech Republic. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was the latest addition to the mix, named to Team USA's camp roster on Wednesday.
Brett Murray also had a big weekend, including a two-goal game that featured an overtime winner.

Read the full report here.