Sharpen Up: January 22, 2022 | Sabres face Flyers this afternoon

It's a 1 p.m. faceoff this afternoon as the Buffalo Sabres face the Philadelphia Flyers at KeyBank Center.
Tickets are on sale now. It's also Youth Hockey Day.

Yesterday's practice

From the Practice Report:
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Craig Anderson was a full participant in practice on Friday, a positive step in his recovery from the upper-body injury that has forced him to miss nearly three months.
The good news on Anderson came as the Sabres sustained yet another loss to their forward group. Jack Quinn - who tallied his first NHL goal and assist against Dallas on Thursday - sustained a lower-body injury in that game and did not practice. The extent of his injury is still be evaluated.
Quinn previously missed all of December with mononucleosis. He is tied for the AHL lead with 18 goals despite the long absence, including seven since returning from his illness on Jan. 5.

"He's a young guy, he'll come back out of this even better," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "Young guys, when they get time out, they don't stop improving. It sounds funny, it sounds odd, but it's much like when he had mono, everyone was worried about how he's going to come back. Well, he came back even better.
"They internalize more, they get to step back and soak some things in from a different angle and it does help them."
Quinn, 20, was recalled Thursday and joined the lineup in place of Kyle Okposo, who is considered week to week. He played on the top power-play unit and scored his first NHL goal on a shot off the crossbar.
"At least Jack was in the game and showed us what Jack can do," Granato said. "Nice to see that. Obviously, injuries are a part of the game and it's unfortunate."

Anderson confirmed his upper-body injury occurred when Sharks forward Tomas Hertl made contact with him while scoring a goal in San Jose on Nov. 2. The 40-year-old had posted a .921 save percentage while starting six of Buffalo's first nine games.
"It's been a lot of long days here, going through treatment, the off-ice stuff, so just getting out there with the guys and realize that hockey is fun and puts a smile on your face when you're out there having fun with them, it was good," Anderson said. "It was an eye-opener. Haven't been on the ice for a while so rhythm and timing, conditioning, etc., that's all coming into play here."
Click here for the full article.

Youth Hockey Photo Guessing Game

We showed the players a bunch of photos of their teammates from their youth hockey days. Were they able to figure out who was whom?

Today's matchup

• This is the first of three meetings between the Sabres and Flyers this season.
• Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Philadelphia 5-3 in Philadelphia on April 11, 2021.
• Next meeting: Saturday, April 16 in Buffalo.
• The Sabres are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games against the Flyers; 5-4-1 at home.
• This is the 190th game all-time between Buffalo and Philadelphia; Buffalo has a 72-91-26 series record.
• The Sabres are 45-36-11 at home against the Flyers all-time.
• Buffalo has won its last two games against Philadelphia and a win tonight would give the team its first three-game winning streak against the Flyers since Feb. 19 to Oct. 30, 2015.
• In Buffalo's last nine games against Philadelphia dating back to March 7, 2020, the team has gone 19-for-21on the penalty kill (90.5%). The Sabres have also scored two shorthanded goals during that span.
• Aaron Dell has a 3-1-1 career record against the Flyers. In his five games against Philadelphia, Dell has posted a .935 save percentage and 1.81 goals-against average.
• Since making his Sabres debut on Dec. 29, Sabres forward Alex Tuch has recorded eight points (3+5) in eight games, including a point in each of his three home contests (1+2).
• Tuch also enters today's matchup on a three-game point streak, totaling four points (2+2) over the last three contests.
• Tage Thompson has nine points (2+7) in his last 10 games played, including five assists in his last five contests.
• Thompson has a point in each of his last four home games (2+3) and leads the Sabres with 17 points (10+7) at KeyBank Center this season.
• Rasmus Dahlin has tallied seven points (1+6) in his last five home games.
• In his last five games, Jeff Skinner has recorded five points (3+2).
• Henri Jokiharju has notched three points (1+2) in his last three contests.
• Dylan Cozens has three points (2+1) in his last two games.

New 26shirts collaboration

Amerks recap

From the Amerks.com recap:
JJ Peterka scored in his return to the lineup while Oskari Laaksonen (0+2) and Linus Weissbach (0+2) both turned in multi-point efforts to help lift the Rochester Americans (20-11-2-1) to a 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Monsters (12-12-4-3) in the first of back-to-back meetings between the two teams Friday night at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
With the win, Rochester's 20th of the season, the Amerks have earned points in 15 of their last 21 games dating back to Nov. 19 while the club shows a 4-3-2-1 over their previous 10 games to remain within three points of Utica for first place in the AHL's North Division standings.

Rochester shows a 33-12-4-4 mark against Cleveland over the last 10 years dating back to the start of the 2011-12 campaign while also having earned a point in 11 of the last 16 games.
As Laaksonen and Weissbach led the Amerks with multi-point efforts, Peterka, who missed the previous five games due to COVID-19 Protocols, Arttu Ruotsalainen and Ara Nazarian all found the back of the net before Monster Ryan MacInnis capped off the win with an empty-netter in the final minute of play.
Brandon Biro, Michael Mersch and Josh Teves all produced an assist while goaltender Mat Robson (4-1-2) made a season-high 35 saves in his seventh appearance with the Amerks this season.
The Amerks and Monsters wrap up their back-to-back set with a rematch today at 1 p.m. All the action from the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
Click here for the full recap.

R.I.P. Clark Gillies

Gillies played the final two seasons of his Hall-of-Fame career in Buffalo. In 86 games with the Sabres over the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons, he recorded 15 goals and 34 points.
During his first 12 seasons with the New York Islanders, Gillies posted 663 points (204+359) in 872 regular-season games and helped lead the franchise to four-straight Stanley Cup championships in the 1980s.
He was 67.