Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Wildcard Edition
Having recorded their fourth straight home defeat while playing the first outing of their current back-to-back set, the Buffalo Sabres (5th in Atlantic Division) will try to find a bit more luck away in Chicago, where the local Blackhawks (8th in Central) has won three of their past four games.
The Buffalo Sabres (21-19-2) were dealt their fourth defeat in the past five outings (1-4-0) after dropping their fourth consecutive domestic decision (0-4-0) following a 4-1 loss against the Florida Panthers at KeyBank Center this afternoon. Alex Tuch (21 goals, 46 points this year) banked the only strike for Buffalo midway through the third period after the Sabres were already trailing 3-0, having conceded a marker in each period, eventually giving up an empty-netter with 1:38 remaining on the clock as well. Despite the home skid, Buffalo is still a solid 6-1-0 in its most recent seven road fixtures.
Goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 30 saves earlier today to take his current performance status to 10-5-1 for the season with a 3.41 GAA and a . 897 save percentage. Either Eric Comrie (4-8-0 with a 3.67 GAA and a .883 save percentage ), or Craig Anderson (7-6-1 with a 2.70 GAA and a .921 save percentage) will, however, patrol Buffalo’s crease tomorrow, having gone 1-1-0 (3.50 GAA; .883 save percentage) and 7-5-4 (3.46 GAA; .906 save percentage) against the Chicago Blackhawks respectively. The Sabres, meanwhile, are 2nd in most goals scored per game this year (3.79), 9th in most goals allowed on average (3.48), 5th in power play (27.1%) and 26th in penalty kill (73.3%).