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1-2-3 WE WANT 4!
Game Preview: 1/18/20 at Nashville
LAST GAME
Thursday, January 16
Buffalo 4 at Dallas 1
Goals: Vesey, Dahlin, Frolik, Girgensons
Goalie: Ullmark (28 saves/29 shots)
PP: 0/2; PK: 4/4; Shots: Dallas 29 – Buffalo 22
SABRES at PREDATORS
Game Preview: 1/18/20 at Nashville
LAST GAME
Thursday, January 16
Buffalo 4 at Dallas 1
Goals: Vesey, Dahlin, Frolik, Girgensons
Goalie: Ullmark (28 saves/29 shots)
PP: 0/2; PK: 4/4; Shots: Dallas 29 – Buffalo 22
SABRES at PREDATORS
- This is the second of two meetings between the Sabres and Predators this season.
- Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Nashville 4-3 in Buffalo on Dec. 12, 2019
- The Sabres are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Predators; 6-4-0 on the road.
- This is the 29th game all-time between Buffalo and Nashville; Buffalo has an 11-13-4 series record.
- The Sabres are 9-5-0 on the road against the Predators all-time.
- The Sabres are 12-5-4 all-time on January 18.
- Four different Sabres goaltenders (Don Edwards, Tom Barrasso, Dominik Hasek, Martin Biron) have earned a shutout on Jan. 18. It is one of only three dates on which the Sabres have recorded four shutouts; the others are Feb. 16 and Nov. 19.
- January 18, 1984: Tom Barrasso makes 30 saves in his first NHL shutout as the Sabres top the Los Angeles Kings 4-0.
- January 18, 2008: Derek Roy records his third career hat trick and Drew Stafford records his first in a 10-1 win against the Atlanta Thrashers, marking the 12th game in franchise history to feature two Sabres hat tricks.
- Buffalo enters tonight’s game on the team’s fourth three-game winning streak of the season and seeking their first four-game streak.
- With a win tonight, the Sabres would earn their first season sweep of the Predators in the 10 multi-game season series between the teams.
- Jack Eichel has totaled 11 points (5+6) in nine career games against the Predators. Seven of those points (2+5) have come on the road, including a franchise record-tying five assists on March 31, 2018 in Nashville.
- Kyle Okposo has 12 points (7+5) in 14 career games against Nashville. His .50 goals per game trail only his eight in 15 games against Chicago (.53) for his best scoring rate against any NHL opponent.
- Sam Reinhart has nine points (6+3) in nine career games against the Predators, including at least a point in each of his four visits to Nashville (6+1).
- Rasmus Ristolainen has totaled five assists in his last four games against Nashville.
- Brandon Montour has tallied an assist in three straight meetings with the Predators entering tonight’s game.
- Jack Eichel has recorded points in each of Buffalo’s last nine games (4+7), marking the longest active streak in the NHL. He already owns the longest streak in the NHL this season after recording 31 points (16+15) in 17 consecutive team games from Nov. 16 to Dec. 17.
- Eichel joins David Pastrnak (13 & 12) as the only other NHL player to record two separate point streaks of at least nine games this season.
- Sam Reinhart has totaled 20 points (7+13) in the Sabres’ last 20 contests.
- Rasmus Dahlin has recorded six points (1+5) in his last six games.
- Rasmus Ristolainen enters tonight’s game on a four-game point streak (1+3). With a point tonight, he would extend his streak to five games for the second time this season.
- Curtis Lazar has points in each of the Sabres’ last three games (1+3), marking his second three-game point streak in the last three weeks and tying his run from March 26 to 29, 2015 as the longest of his career.
- Kyle Okposo has recorded four points (1+3) in Buffalo’s last four games, including points in each of the last two.
- Zemgus Girgensons, who logged his highest ice time (18:36) since March 2017 on Thursday at Dallas, has scored in three of the Sabres’ last four games.
- Linus Ullmark is 5-1-0 since the beginning of January with a .929 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average. He has allowed just one even-strength goal in each of Buffalo’s last three games, stopping 65 of 68 shots (.956) at even strength in those contests.
- Since the beginning of January, the Sabres have gone 6-for-18 (33.3%) on the power play. Their conversion rate tied as the fifth-best rate in the league during the new year entering play Friday.
- Their plus-6 goal differential with the man advantage during that stretch tied for second in the league.
- Through seven games in January, Buffalo has killed 15 of the team’s shorthanded situations (88.2%), tying for the sixth-best penalty kill percentage in the NHL in the new year.
- With two shorthanded goals during that span, they joined the Dallas Stars as one of just two teams with an even goal differential while shorthanded in 2020.
- Entering play Friday, Jake McCabe ranked fifth in the league among regular penalty killers (min. 10 shorthanded minutes) during this stretch in fewest shots against per two minutes of ice time (.704) and ranked sixth in fewest scoring chances allowed per two minutes (.528). (Data via NaturalStatTrick.com)
- Rasmus Dahlin has totaled 71 points (12+59) through his first 122 NHL games, including 27 points (3+24) in 40 games this season.
- With his goal on Thursday at Dallas, Dahlin passed Scott Stevens (70) for most points recorded by an NHL defenseman before his 20th birthday. He now trails only Phil Housley (132), Ray Bourque (79), Rick Hampton (76) and Bobby Orr (72) for most points ever recorded by a teenage defenseman.
- Aaron Ekblad’s 61 points (22+39) in 129 games as a teenager led active NHL defensemen for most points before turning 20 until Dahlin recorded his 62nd point with an assist in his 108th NHL game on Dec. 14 at NY Islanders.
- Andrei Svechnikov is the only active teenager in the NHL with more career points than Dahlin’s 71. He had 79 points (38+41) in 129 career games entering Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks.
- Dahlin’s .58 points per game in his career currently ranks as the 19th-highest rate among active NHL defensemen with at least 10 career games played. His .675 points per game so far this season represent the best scoring rate by a Sabres defenseman since Brian Campbell (.683) in 2007-08.
