I told you to pump your brakes before writing off the Buffalo Sabres.
Phil Housley’s club just finished the first ten game segment of the season with a 3-1-1 flurry after losing it’s first five games. After dropping seven of their first eight games of the season, the Sabres have won back-to-back contests against Atlantic division rivals Boston and Detroit.
The Sabres are now 3-5-2 and are looking to level their record at .500 before the calendar flips to Movember.
The Sabres have two games remaining in the month of Eichtober. They play the Blue Jackets on the road and the Sharks at home.
On Tuesday night, the Sabres delivered their most complete performance of the season. The Sabres blanked the Red Wings 1-0 for their first win on home ice of the season.
Getting back to a .500 record will be a moral victory for Housley’s players, who struggled to grasp the execution of the fundamentals of the newly installed five-man attack system. Having four defensemen injured at the start of the season has been a burden as well. Juggling forward lines to find primary, secondary and tertiary scoring was a huge concern the first two weeks of the season. The team has been playing well for the past week to ten days. Housley and his coaches are now tasked with finding consistency in their team’s game.
There is no time to break one’s arm patting one’s own back. The Sabres travel to Columbus for a battle with the Blue Jackets tonight. The Sabres host the Sharks at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.
The Columbus has suffered two straight losses on its current four-game home stand. Thursday night, the Blue Jackets were blanked 2-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning. On Saturday, the LA Kings whipped the Blue Jackets 6-4.
With wins in consecutive games for the first time this season, the Sabres are seeking their first three-game winning streak since February 14 to 18 2017.
The Sabres are 2-0-1 in their last three road games. A win tonight in Columbus would give the Sabres points in four straight road games for the first time since Dan Bylsma’s team went 1-0-3 on the road from November 29 to December 20, 2016.
Lehner is 5-2-0 in seven career games against the Blue Jackets with a .951 save percentage and a 1.81 GAA.
After last night’s shutout against Detroit, Robin Lehner enters tonight’s game having played 91:35 without allowing a goal. If he plays 35:24 without allowing a goal tonight, he will match his career-best 126:59, set with the Ottawa Senators from March 30 to April 13, 2014.
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With 11 points each, Jack Eichel, Evander Kane and Jason Pominville are tied for eighth in the league in scoring.
Pominville already has five multi-point games.
Evander Kane has nine points (5G, 4)lA) in his last eight games against the Blue Jackets.
Kyle Okposo has eight points (4G, 4A) in his last eight games against Columbus
Rasmus Ristolainen has six points (2G, 4A)in his last five games against the Blue Jackets.
Jack Eichel has totaled six points (2G, 4A) in six career games against Columbus.
Matt Moulson has six points (2G, 4A)in his last six games against the Blue Jackets.
Sam Reinhart has a point in each of his last four games against Columbus (3G, 1A).
Jake McCabe has a point in each of his last four games against the Blue Jackets (1G, 2A).
The Columbus rod game will conclude Buffalo’s third of sixteen sets of back-to-back games this season, which began with a 1-0 win last night vs. Detroit. The Sabres are 1-2-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 2-0-0 in the second game so far this season.