Winners of two straight games, the Buffalo Sabres practiced in Detroit on Monday in preparation for their clash with the Winged Wheel on Tuesday night.
The Sabres defeated the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Saturday night.
Tyler Ennis (upper body) and Mark Pysyk (bone bruise) didn't make the road trip to the Motor City.
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The Sabres penalty killers may want to continue to play aggressively on Tuesday night.
First year head coach Jeff Blashill's Red Wings are currently mired in a power play slump where they are 0 for 9 on the power play in their past three games.
The Wings currently rank 26th in the NHL at 15.8% PP success rate. Mike Babcock's 2014-15 Wings concluded the season second in the NHL at 23.5% PP success rate.
The Wings have scored only 12 PPGs in 24 games played.
The Red Wings have played 24 games this season and it's boggling mind mind that several of their vets are pitching bagels on the PP. Nik Kronwall, Mike Green, Brad Richards, Pavel Datsyuk, Danny DeKeyser, Riley Sheahhan and Darren Helm are all oh-fer the PP.
On the other side of the ledger, the Buffalo Sabres' PP is currently ranked #7 in the NHL standings with a 21.8% success rate. Buffalo have scored 16 man advantage goals.
Ryan O'Reilly leads the Sabres with 4 PPGs. Jack Eichel has scored 3 PPGs. Rasmus Ristolainen, Jamie McGinn, and Samson Reinhart each have scored 2 PPGs apiece. Matt Moulsonhas scored 1 PPG.
Dan Bylsma's been patiently awaiting the arrival of the first power play goals of the season from vets Evander Kane, Cody Franson, Zach Bogosian, Brian Gionta, Marcus Foligno and Zemgus Girgensons,
Blashill and his coaches need only look at the NHL Penalty Kill charts to see a huge opportunity. When the puck drops between the Wings and Sabres on Tuesday night, the Sabres will be ranked 27th overall in PK success rate at 75.4%. Conversely, the Wings PK is currently ranked 4th overall at 85%.
The Sabres went 2 for 4 on the PP in the win at Nashville on Saturday night.
On the dry erase board, the Wings PP units appear to be donmnant.
The first PP unit boasts of Henrik Zetterberg, Gustav Nyquist, Justin Abdelkader (net front), Nik Kronwall and Brad Richards. Thesecond PP unit consists of Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Tatar, Teemu Pulkkinen, Riley Sheahan (net front) and Mike Green.
Nyquist leads the Wings with 4 PPGs. Tomas Tatar has scored 3 PPGs and Justin Abdelkader has 2 PPGs. Hank Zetterberg has but 1 PPPG.
Dylan Larkin (15th overall 2014), 19, is tied for the NHL lead with 10, 5-on-5 goals this season.
Surprisingly, Blashill doesn't play the former Michigan Wolverine star on his power play units.
I'm not an NHL coach, but I'll go ahead and play one in this blog.
My first order of business would be to scratch an under-performing vet from my powerless play and I'd pulse in the hotter-than-a-pistol Larkin.
Larkin is ranked #3 overall in the NHL Rookie scoring race with 10 goals and 8 assists. He trails Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks (23 points) and Max Domi of the Arizona Coyotes (20 points).
Jack Eichel, 19, is presently ranked 7th in the NHL Rookie scoring race with 8 goals and 4 assists, however, the second overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft is tied for first place for NHL Rookie PPGs scored. Eichel as already scored 3 PPGs. Sabres sniper Samson Reinhart has 6 goals this season, 2 of which have been scored on the power play.
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In other Wings news,
Blashill told the team's website that Teemu Pulkkinen will be back in the Detroit lineup vs, Buffalo. Forwards Tomas Jurco and Joakim Andersson will be scratches.
Pulkkinen will play on L4 at with Luke Glendening and Drew Miller.
Darren Helm will skate with Pavel Datsyuk and Brad Richards.\
On teh blue line, Brendan Smith will play and Jakub Kindl will sit.
Blashill said Petr Mrazek will make his second start in a row on Tuesday. It will be his 15th game.
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