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Attacking With Swagger, Daggers |
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Time to go back to back with Samson, Jack, Evander and the boys.
If you bought tickets with the boys to see Ryan Miller play in his old barn tonight, you've got a surprise in store.
Miller made the start in Saturday's matinee in Beantown. Miller and the Canucks could have done the Sabres a solid by beating the Bruins.
Miller held his team in the game, making several 10-bell, great saves in the first 58 minutes of the game. Then, with 120 ticks left in regulation of a 3-3 games. Canucks D Chris Tanev lost coverage on Bruins sniper David Patrnak who drove hard down the wall, stopped and popped his 25th goal of the season and 100th point of his career. Pasta's G-DUB gave the Bruins the 4-3 win.
At age 36, Miller won't be starting back to back games on the road.
Miller spent parts of 11 seasons as a member of the Sabres from 2002-2014. Drafted by Buffalo in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Draft (138th overall), Miller compiled a record of 284-186-56 in 540 games, earning franchise-record totals in games played and wins.
The rare Sunday night Sabres-Canucks tilt in Buffalo is the second of two meetings between the two 1970 expansion teams this season.
Vancouver got the better of Buffalo 2-1 in VanCity on October 20. The Sabres are 7-3-0 in their last 10 home games against the Canucks. The Sabres are 31-19-8 at home against the Canucks all-time.
The Canucks have only won once in their six visits Buffalo since 2003, posting a 3-0 win on October 17, 2013.
Tonight is the Sabres’ third game in a stretch of eight straight home games against the Western Conference. The Sabres were drubbed 5-2 by Anaheim on Thursday night. They shocked San Jose by scoring four unanswered goals in Tuesday's 5-4 OT victory. The Sabres haven't lost back to back home games to Western opponents since early November 2014.
The Sabres 12-2-3 in their last 17 home games against Western Conference opponents and 10-5-2 in all games against left coast this season.
The Sabres are 59-20-16 (.705) all-time in home games against the Pacific Division, including a 13-1-3 record in the last 17 games.
The Eastern Conference playoff picture will become very interesting if/when Sabres beat the Canucks tonight, the Senators on Tuesday and the Avalanche on Thursday,
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Jack Eichel has logged 14 points (5G, 9A) in his last 13 games, including six multi-point explosions. Eichell scored a Jack Trick (3 apples) in Saturday night's win over Toronto.
The Sabres are 10-0-0 this season (and 19-3-0 in his career) when Eichel has at least two points in a game.
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Evander Kane is hotter than molten lava right now. Kane has 11 points (6G, 5A) in his last 10 games.
Remarkably, Kane has scored each of his 18 goals this season in his last 32 games, including a team-high 17 even-strength goals.
Since the December 3 game against Boston, Kane is tied for fourth among all NHL skaters in goals (18), leads the NHL in even-strength goals (17) and ranks third in shots on goal (124).
Healthy changes everything, eh?
Kane has been heavily scouted by several NHL teams in the past two months, including: LA, Anaheim, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Philly, Minnesota, Calgary, Dallas, Edmonton, Montreal and others.
The NHL trade deadline is March 1.
Tim Murray is not making trade calls on Kane. However, his phone will continue to blow up with inbound texts , DMs, and emails from NHL GMs looking to get their hands on Kane to add 5v5 scoring, physicality, swagger, and blinding speed for the playoff run.
Murray will listen to all offers.
Warning: No tire kickers. Interested buyers with premium trade proposals (top 4 D, prospect) only need phone Murray on Kane.
What Top 4 D Is Murray Be Interested In?
Below is the list of top four D that would be required to make a deal for Kane:
Anaheim: Sami Vatanen, Shea Theodore
LA: Jake Muzzin
Vancouver: Ben Hutton
Philadelphia: Shayne Gostisbehere, Sam Morin
Pittsburgh: Olli Maatta
Nashville: Ryan Ellis
Calgary: Dougie Hamilton
San Jose: Marc Edourd-Vlasic
Edmonton: Darnell Nurse
Colorado: Tyson Barrie
Montreal: Mikhail Sergachev
Minnesota: Jared Spurgeon, Matthew Dumba
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Samson Reinhart enters tonight’s game on a three-game point streak and has totaled four points (1G, 3A) in those games.
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Ryan O’Reilly has 15 points (5G, 10A) in his last 13 home games.
Sam Reinhart has 12 points (4G, 8A) in his last 12 home games.
Jack Eichel has 16 points (7G, 9A) in 16 home games this season, including six multi-point outings.
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The Sabres PP is on fire having gone 4-for-6 with the man advantage in their last three games. After Hthe win over the Leafs on Hockey Night In Canada, the Sabres PP now ranks numero uno in the NHL with a 23.8% success rate on the power play.
Buffalo has not finished a season ranked in the top five in power play percentage since the 2005-06 season ( 3rd, 21.2%).
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Robin Lehner is 6-3-1 with a .933 save percentage so far in 2017.
Kyle Okposo has points in 9 of his last 13 games, including each of his last five (2G, 3A). With a point tonight, Booker will have points in six straight for the first time since November 12 to 25, 2015.
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Props to Robin Lehner for making 43 saves in the 3-1 win over the Maple Leafs on HNIC.
I'm also sending an unsung hero stick tap out to Jake McCabe, who sacrificed his body for the boys while defending an empty Buffalo net in the late stages of the game. Had McCabe not sold out and made this face first mini-sticks/knee hockey save, the game would have been 3-2 with the Leafs net empty for the extra attacker.
Way to put the boys before all else, Caber.
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My other unsung hero award goes to Moose Foligno, whoin the first period with Buffalo leading 2-0 and swarming, launched Leafs D Nikita Zaitsev ass over tea kettle into orbit.
Good news. Hours after the Buffalo win, Zaitsev was found dazed and sore in a corn field at the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin.
Zaitsev, like dozens of other naive NHLers, learned first hand that Foligno is one of the most abusive, hard-to-play-against power firwrads in the NHL today. When you get plowed into or punched in the mouth by The Moose, it leaves severalm arks.
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Tyler Ennis has recorded a point in five of his seven career games against the Canucks (3G, 2A).
Brian Gionta has five points (2G, 3A) in his last four games against Vancouver.
Since the beginning of the 2013-14 season, Kyle Okposo has tallied eight assists in six games against the Canucks.
In his only previous meeting with the Canucks on October. 18, 2015, Anders Nilsson stopped 33 of 34 shots (.971) to earn a win in Vancouver. Nilsson is the expected starter for the Sabres tonight. He'll face Jacob Markstrom at the lonely end of the rink.
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