Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres buckled down for the last nine minutes on Saturday, and came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 in overtime.
There’s no rest for the weary, as the Detroit Red Wings come to town on Monday, and it won’t be to trick or treat on Halloween.
Despite having 90 shots on goal in the last two games, the Sabres only won one of those contests. Overall, the Sabres are 5-3-0 through the first eight games, and a win would give them a very good month of October, picking up 12 out of 18 points.
While it’s still early in the season, it’s crazy how close the standings are in the Eastern Conference.
The Boston Bruins are far-and-away the leaders with 16 points, followed by the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers with 12. Three teams have 11 points, while six teams - including the Sabres - have 10. Two teams have nine and one has eight points.
If you go by points percentage, the Sabres are tied with the Red Wings for fifth in the conference at .625.
I think we all knew the Sabres wouldn’t be the second-highest scoring team in the NHL, but they’re still fifth at 3.63 goals per-game. Defensively, Buffalo is seventh with a 2.75 goals-against average.
Buffalo has a power play goal in five out of six games, and are now ranked 17th in the NHL at 20.7%.
Alex Tuch and Victor Olofsson are eighth in the NHL with six goals, while Rasmus Dahlin is second in defensemen scoring with five goals and five assists for 10 points in eight games. Dahlin has points in seven of his last eight games.
The Sabres were missing three of their six defensemen on Saturday due to injuries. That put Casey Fitzgerald, Lawrence Pilut and Kale Clague into the lineup for Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju and Ilya Lyubushkin.
Sabres head coach Don Granato said on Monday that Lyubushkin still needs more rest, but they'll continue to monitor him this week.
With Craig Anderson running his record up to 3-0-0 with the win on Saturday, Eric Comrie will likely be back in goal on Monday. Comrie is 2-3-0 this season with a 3.42 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. He’s given up 11 goals in his last three starts, losing two of them.
Tage Thompson had three points in the final nine minutes of the Blackhawks game. That gives him three goals and three assists for six points in his last six games. Jeff Skinner has a goal and three assists in his last four games, while Olofsson has four goals and five points in his last four games.
Rasmus Asplund will draw back into the lineup on Monday night for Vinnie Hinostroza.
Riley Sheahan was placed on waivers on Sunday, so Buffalo will call up another defensemen with only six blue liners being healthy.
Chase Priskie is currently injured with the Rochester Americans, so they only had Jeremy Davies and Oskari Laaksonen to choose from. It ended up being Davies getting the call up from the Amerks.
Last year, the Sabres had a horrible time with Detroit, blowing late leads and losing. The Red Wings beat the Sabres 4-3 in overtime, 3-2 in overtime, 4-0 and 3-2 in overtime.
Buffalo didn’t match up well against the Wings, especially Tyler Bertuzzi, who is now injured. In 14 games against Buffalo, Bertuzzi has six goals and seven assists for 13 points.
In 24 games, Dylan Larkin has 12 goals and 20 points against the Sabres.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman has built his group a different way this season, as he went deep into the free agent market. The Wings signed Andrew Copp, David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta, Robert Hagg and Mark Pysyk.
They already had Alex Nedeljkovic in goal, but they traded with the St. Louis Blues to get Ville Husso. Husso is 3-1-1 with the Wings, posting a 2.40 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
Nedeljkovidc is 1-1-1 this season with a 3.96 goals-against average and an .890 save percentage.
After a great rookie season, Kubalik flopped with Chicago, and now he’s Detroit’s leading scorer with four goals and seven assists for 11 points in eight games. Larkin has 10 points.
The Wings have lost four of their last six games, going 2-2-2. In four of those games, they gave up four or more goals.
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. ET, when they’ll be joined by Granato, Skinner and Pilut.
Monday’s lines:
Forward:
Skinner - Thompson - Okposo
Quinn - Mittelstadt - Olofsson
Peterka - Cozens - Tuch
Girgensons - Krebs - Asplund
Defense:
Bryson - Dahlin
Clague - Power
Pilut - Fitzgerald
