Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres come home Wednesday from a 3-0-0 California road trip to host the NHL’s third-best team, the Minnesota Wild.
Tage Thompson will return to the lineup for Buffalo after missing five games due to a mid-body injury. When Thompson left the ice against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 11, his 11 goals led the NHL. He’s now 18th in the league.
Thompson returns with a four-game point streak, where he has four goals and five points in that streak.
Historically, Eastern teams have trouble with their first game back from a West Coast trip. Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff does think about that.
"We gave the extra day to try to recover, yesterday’s practice didn’t look that good. I thought today actually looked better," said Ruff on Wednesday after the morning skate. "I mean, normally it would be optional, today we just made it get out there, get the feet and the hands going to try to execute better than yesterday."
Former Wild first-round pick Alex Tuch has a six-game point streak, where he’s netted three goals and six assists for nine points. He has points in 9-of-10 games, scoring four goals and eight assists for 12 points.
Buffalo is looking for its first four-game winning streak since January of 2023.
The Sabres have won 7-of-9 games. Their .778 points percentage in that stretch is second in the NHL, and their 91.2% penalty kill rate is No. 1. The power play is fourth at 28.6%, so you can see why Buffalo has been able to pick up 14-of-18 points.
"We’ve got more players that can kill than you realize," Ruff said when asked why the penalty kill is working without two of their best killers, Jordan Greenway and Mattias Samuelsson. "We’ve tried to get everybody a role so some of the power play guys have shifted in.
"The guys that are in the bottom-six on the lines have been good at killing, and when given a bigger opportunity, they’ve stepped up. But I think it’s more there’s guys there that haven’t killed that have killed in the past that have been able to fill in. And the way we’re trying to kill, which is a little different than last year, it’s a little bit simpler that allows more players to get involved."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will be back in net after getting Saturday’s game off in San Jose. He’s won five-straight games, and in his six starts around the Montreal game, where he was hurt and shouldn’t have played, his save percentage is .951.
In their last six games against Minnesota, Buffalo is 5-0-1.
WEDNESDAY’S LINES:
Forwards:
Peterka - Thompson - Tuch
Zucker - Kulich - Quinn
Krebs - Cozens - Benson
Malenstyn - McLeod - Lafferty
Defense:
Dahlin - Byram
Power - Jokiharju
Bryson - Clifton
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The Wild are 9-1-3 on the road this season, but recently, they’re 2-0-2.
Two games ago, the NHL’s third-leading scorer, Kirill Kaprizov, left with an injury that required an MRI. He turned out to be OK, and played 23:08 on Monday in a loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
Kaprizov has 13 goals and 21 assists for 34 points, and had his seven-game point streak was snapped in Monday's loss. In that streak, the speedy forward had six goals and seven assists for 13 points.
Players like Kaprizov can find open ice faster than you can keep track of them.
"You have to have awareness. You can’t even be even with him," Ruff said of Kaprizov. "Coming back up ice, he’s such a strong player cutting in off the wing. Even if he doesn’t have a step, he can create his own room. I think he’s one of the best players at getting inside and hanging onto pucks. He’s incredibly strong."
In six games against the Sabres, Kaprizov has five goals and four assists for nine points.
The Sabres are going to be hard pressed to get scoring chances against the Wild. Minnesota is second in the league with a goals-against average of 2.48. Believe it or not, they’re tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Minnesota is 12th in goals scoring, while Buffalo is 13th.
Filip Gustavsson is in his third season with Minnesota, and is 9-4-3 with a 2.18 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. Gustavsson has played in 7-of-8 games, and in his last two, he’s stopped 28-of-31 shots in each.
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Ruff, Thompson and Jason Zucker.