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Sabres Playing With Power

January 27, 2021, 5:07 PM ET [2 Comments]
Mark Pino
Buffalo Sabres Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT



What a difference a weeks makes.

The Buffalo Sabres started the 2021 season slowly but have stacked points consistently in the past week to level their record at .500.

The Sabres have struggled to score at even strength, however, have found early season success with their power play which ranks among the best in the NHL.






Sabres had a Noon practice on Wednesday following their 3-2 win over the NY Rangers on home ice on Tuesday night.

Courtesy of PPGs by rookie rock star Dylan Cozens and captain Jack Eichel, the Sabres went 2-for-4 on the power play after going 3-for-5 in Sunday’s matinee game against the Washington Capitals.


Veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen appeared in his 500th NHL game on Tuesday night, becoming the 31st player to appear in 500 games for the Sabres. Ristolainen is the first to do so since Drew Stafford played his 500th game with the team on March 11, 2014 vs. Nashville.

Cozens scored his first career power-play goal in the first period. He now has goals in consecutive appearances.

Eric Staal recorded an assist on the Cozens PPG to extend his point streak to three games (2G,1A). Staal now has scored 5G,7A in his nine games against the Rangers since the beginning of the 2016-17 season.

Matt Irwin recorded an assist in his Sabres debut.

With his game winning goal, Jack Eichel tied Jochen Hecht for the 19th-most goals in Sabres franchise history (138). Eichel now trails Drew Stafford by seven goals for 18th place. Eichel’s 41 PPGs rank him 18th in Sabres franchise history.

With seven assists through his first seven games of the season, Jack Eichel is tied for fourth in the NHL in assists.

Eichel’s career per-game output ranks in the franchise’s top 15 in every major scoring category (minimum 82 games played): .38 goals per game (14th), .57 assists per game (10th), .96 points per game (11th)

Tuesday’s win improved the Sabres’ home record against New York to 50-29-15 all-time. The Rangers became the fifth opponent that the Sabres have earned at least 50 home wins against.

With a victory Thursday night, the Sabres would have wins in three consecutive tilts against the Rangers for the first time since April 2, 2016 to January 3, 2017. The Sabres would also have wins in consecutive home games against the Rangers for the first time since January 9 and Feb. 21, 2009.

Carter Hutton is expected to get the start for the Sabres against the Rangers on Thursday night. Hutton hasn’t played in a game since Monday January 18 when he suffered a head injury in a goal mouth collision with Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov. Hutton allowed one goal against in 40 minutes of play and was forced to take the rest of the night off. The Sabres lost that game 3-0 to the Flyers.

Hutton is 5-2-0 in his career against the Rangers with a .932 SV% and a 2.16 AA. Another win against the Rangers would tie his six wins against the San Jose Sharks as his highest win total against any team.


The Sabres have found success in their first seven games by creating chances at even strength while winning the special teams battles

According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Sabres rank near the top of the league at 5-on-5 in several underlying statistical categories that are typically predictive of success:
Corsi percentage: 53.4% (8th)
High-danger chance percentage: 64.3% (3rd)
Expected goals percentage: 57.4% (4th)

Through their first seven games, the Sabres have led their opponents at 5-on-5 in each of these categories in every game except when they were out-attempted 51-49 by the Flyers in Buffalo’s 6-1 win on January 18.


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Buffalo currently owns the eighth ranked eighth-ranked power play in the NHL. Last season, the Sabres’ power play ranked 20th in the NHL.

The Sabres power play is 5 for 9 in its last two games. Ralph Krueger now boasts of two prolific power play units that have scored on 8 of 26 power play opportunities this season for a 30.8% success rate. Sabres PP1 features Jack Eichel, Taylor Hall, Samson Reinhart, Victor Olofsson and Rasmus Dahlin. the second unit features Eric Staal, Jeff Skinner, Dylan Cozens, and Rasmus Ristolainen.

By going 3-for-5 on the power play on Sunday at Washington and 2-for-4 on Tuesday vs. NY Rangers, the Sabres scored five power-play goals in a two-game span for the first time since October 5 and 7, 2019.

The Sabres have had an NHL best seven different players score at least one goal on the power play, led by Victor Olofsson’s two power-play goals.

Jack Eichel is tied for second in the NHL with a team-leading five power-play points (1G,4A).





The Sabres have 10 players with at least one power-play point this season, tying for second-most in the NHL.

Entering play Wednesday January 27, the Sabres have been the least-penalized team in the NHL at 4:25 of penalty time per game.

At plus-14 (28 drawn/14 taken), the Sabres have the top penalty differential in the NHL entering Wednesday’s games.


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Jake McCabe (8th, 59.5%) and Rasmus Ristolainen (26th, 57.1%) rank among the league’s top 30 defensemen in corsi percentage (minimum 30 minutes played).

According to NaturalStatTrick.com, McCabe and Ristolainen have the 11th-best possession numbers among NHL pairs who have played at least 30 minutes together this season. They have a CF% of 58.0 percent when skating together during 5-on-5 play despite an offensive zone start rate (38.6%) that ranks as the 21st-toughest among the 106 qualifying pairs. Only Edmonton’s duo of Ethan Bear and Darnell Nurse (8 GF) have been on the ice for more even strength goals as a pair than McCabe and Ristolainen’s seven goals.

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Linus Ullmark stopped all three Washington shooters on Sunday to improve to 5-3 in shootouts in his career with 27 saves on 32 career shots faced (.844). His five career shootout wins rank him third in franchise history behind Ryan Miller (49) and Jhonas Enroth (10).

Ullmark’s shootout save percentage of .844 ranks fourth all-time among NHL goaltenders with at least 20 shots faced. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (.852) is the only qualifying active goaltender with a better career save percentage in the shootout.

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With his goal on January 15 against the Washington Capitals, Rasmus Ristolainen broke a tie with Bill Hajt for the 10th-most goals by a defenseman in Sabres history. He now trails Tyler Myers and Jim Schoenfeld by two goals for eighth-most.

Ristolainen’s first assist on January 24 at Washington moved him past Jim Schoenfeld for the seventh-most career points recorded by a Sabres defenseman. He currently trails Bill Hajt by 13 points for sixth-most.

Ristolainen holds the franchise record for most overtime goals by a defenseman (4) and is tied for ninth all-time among the team’s blueliners with six game-winning goals.

Ristolainen’s career per-game output ranks him among the franchise’s top 15 defensemen in every major scoring category (min. 82 GP): .09 G/GP (13th), .38 A/GP (12th), .46 PTS/GP (11th).
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