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Swords Mightier Than Pens? |
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You pass the same climbing up the ladder of life you meet on the way down.
The Buffalo Sabres play a huge game in Pittsburgh tonight where the Penguins are sinking fast and trouble is pounding upon their door.
The upstart Sabres are not the tanking doormat team they used to be. They are a fast, ferocious group that never quits and keeps battling to the final horn.
In their last 7 games, the Sabres have won 6, outscored opponents 27-17, and have beaten 4 of the current top 10 teams.
The Sabres are the antithesis of what they were as a team last November and beyond.
For the first time in a long time, the Sabres are winning while incumbent Cup winning teams like Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago are starting to rust and break down from the high mileage and stress from the heavy workload.
There are many reasons to like the Sabres this season.
Phil Housley is getting balanced scoring from all four lines and all three D pairs. The Sabres D corps already has scored 10 goals in the first 20 games of the season.
The fresh faced Sabres are led by Jack Eichel’s 22 points in 20 games.
Jeff Skinner’s 14 goals, including an NHL-best 10 goals on the road.
With 14 goals in his first 20 games with the Sabres, Skinner trails only David Pastrnak (17 goals) for most in the NHL this season.
With his 10th goal in the team’s 16th game of the season on November 8 at Montreal, Skinner reached the 10-goal mark quicker than any Sabres player since Thomas Vanek (10 games) in 2012-13.
Rookie phenom Rasmus Dahlin has five points in his last five games and is making All star level decisions with the puck.
The Sabres have defeated five playoff-quality teams in their past five games including: Minnesota, Winnipeg, Tampa, Vancouver and Montreal.
The Sabres enter tonight’s game against Pittsburgh with a 12-6-2 record through their first 20 games this season.
Their 26 points through 20 games ties the 2009-10 season as the Sabres’ second-best 20-game start in the overtime point era. Buffalo has previously posted 26 or more points through 20 games seven times in franchise history and has made the playoffs on each of those occasions.
As for the Penguins, they are a hot mess right now. Injuries, poor team-defense, and inconsistent goaltending play continues to dog this aging team.
Pittsburgh (7-8-3) is 1-7-1 in its past nine games. Matt Murray allowed three goals on 10 shots in the 6-4 loss to Ottawa in Saturday. Murray was replaced at the start of the second period by Casey DeSmith, who made 12 saves.
"We're a team that, for me, when we don't beat ourselves, we're a hard team to beat," Murray said. "I think the last couple games, we've just been doing little things throughout the game that beat [us]. But the good thing is, that's easily corrected, and I think if we correct those things, then we're right back in it."
While Murray has struggled mightily this season, Buffalo’s Carter Hutton has been playing superbly and is giving his Sabres a chance to win every time he tends the bars.
In his 14 games started, Hutton is 8-6-1 with a 2.51 GAA and .919 SV%.
Hutton has faced 442 shots and has made 406 saves.
Hutton seemingly has a personal vendetta out for the Penguins. The 32 year old veteran has stopped 74 of 75 shots (.987 SV%) in four career games vs. Penguins. All four games played in The Burgh. Hutton has shutout the Penguins his last two starts against Crosby and Company
The Sabres find themselves smack dab in the heart of their first five-game winning streak since March 19 to 27, 2012, marking the longest active streak in the NHL.
A win over the Penguins will give the Sabres its first six-game winning streak in a single season since December 27, 2009 to January 8, 2010.
Former Penguins winger Conor Sheary will want to show his old teammates, coaches and GM that he still has a ton of offense left to give. Sheary won two Stanley Cups with the Pens but was traded this past summer to Buffalo.
Veteran winger Kyle Okposo’s loves playung against the Penguins.
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Thanks to Buffalo Sabres PR for this great stat:
The Sabres are 8-0-2 when scoring first so far this season. The Sabres are one of four teams who have earned at least a point in every game in which they’ve opened the scoring in 2018-19.
Their current win percentage when scoring first (.800) is the team’s best since the 2005-06 season (36-5-4, .800).
Buffalo is 7-0-2 when leading after the first period. Entering play Sunday, they were one of six teams who have earned at least a point in every game in which they’ve led after 20 minutes in 2018-19.
Their current win percentage when leading after one (.778) is the team’s best since the 2009-10 season (21-4-2, .778).
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However, the Sabres are never out of a game in which they don’t score first.
The Sabres are 4-6-1 when trailing after two periods.
Their four wins when trailing after 40 minutes tied for second-most in the league entering play Sunday.
Buffalo’s current win percentage when trailing after two periods is .363. The franchise record for best win percentage when trailing after two periods is currently the team’s .286 mark (7-19-0) from the 1983-84 season
After capping off their comeback with a game-winning goal with 1:05 remaining in the third period on Saturday at Minnesota, the Sabres became the only team to score two game-winners within the last two minutes of a game so far this season.
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