Sharpen Up: March 17, 2019

The Sabres are back in action tonight as the St. Louis Blues are in town for a St. Patrick's Day showdown at KeyBank Center. If you can't make it to the arena, you can catch the GMC Game Night pregame show starting at 4:30 p.m. on MSG. Faceoff is scheduled for 5 on MSG and WGR 550.
Buffalo is coming off a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last night in Raleigh.
Here's what you need to know.

Tonight's matchup

From the Game Notes…

It's St. Patrick's Day

It's Luck of the Irish Night at KeyBank Center so be on the lookout for prizes in-arena and on our social media channels:

St. Patrick's Day-themed autographed pucks will also be on sale in the concourse before the game with all proceeds to benefit the Buffalo Sabres Foundation. The special autographed pucks will be sold for $20 in the 100 Level concourse prior to the 5 p.m. game. Sabres wives and girlfriends will be on hand to assist with the sale.
The Sabres will also wear green St. Patrick's Day themed jerseys for warmups against St. Louis. The jerseys will be auctioned off immediately following the game at Sabres.com/auction with the auctions running until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26.
Click here for more info.

About last night

From the Lexus Postgame Report…
Jeff Skinner found the back of the net early to put an end to both to his own and his team's scoring droughts, but the Sabres were unable to capitalize on their chances from that point on in a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Saturday.
Skinner had gone 13 games without a goal entering the night, while the Sabres hadn't scored in their last three contests.
"I think sometimes when you're fighting it, sort of having trouble putting one in, you need to get a bounce or a lucky one," he said. "Fortunately, we got one there. I think we had some pretty good looks after that, we just couldn't seem to get that second one."
Buffalo didn't score its second goal until Zemgus Girgensons buried a shot from the slot through traffic with 1:11 remaining in the contest. Curtis McElhinney turned in a 35-save performance for the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes tied the game on a first-period goal from Lucas Wallmark, then built their lead on goals from Andre Svechnikov and Justin Williams in the second. Jordan Stall delivered the dagger with a spinning backhand shot with 4:14 left in the third.

"That's just where we're at right now," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "We're not finding a way. But I liked that we went to the net harder, we drove to the net. We created a lot more this game."
Despite the result, Housley felt his team's offensive output marked an improvement over their shutout loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday. McElhinney robbed a backhand attempt from Alexander Nylander and stopped Evan Rodrigues on a breakaway in the second period. Conor Sheary shot wide on an open cage.
"Just off the rush, we were driving hard to the net, we got some second and third opportunities," Housley said. "It's just not falling for us right now. We've just got to continue to grind it out."
You can read the full recap here.

Today in Sabres history

1997:Donald Audette scores twice and Rob Ray fights Jeff Odgers to become the 30th player in NHL history to record 2,000 penalty minutes in his career during a 5-1 win at home against Boston.