Sunrise, FL (WGR 550) - The Sabres are in Florida on Tuesday and have no room for error with many teams playing.
Buffalo trails Montreal and Pittsburgh by six points for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot. The Sabres are also tied with Philadelphia, and five points in back of Carolina in the standings.
The worst part of Tuesday is Columbus is at Montreal. Other relevant games feature Pittsburgh traveling to New Jersey, Philadelphia hosting Tampa Bay and the Rangers at Carolina. Toronto is also at St. Louis.
This is such an important part of the season, and Phil Housley's crew has come up awfully small lately. Now is when it matters the most, and they've lost to two of the East's bottom feeders, giving up 10 goals.
As we reported earlier on Tuesday, Kyle Okposo has been diagnosed with a concussion. Phil Housley maintained with Howard and Jeremy on Tuesday morning that Rasmus Ristolainen and Zach Bogosian would be game-time decisions.
In the game against the Devils, Matt Hunwick played for the injured Marco Scandella. There wasn't a morning skate so we'll know more at 4:45.
Buffalo is 2-6-2 in its last 10 games versus Florida, and 1-7-1 in Sunrise.
The Sabres haven't strung together two consecutive wins in over two months.
After two losses to the Panthers this season, Buffalo beat them at home 4-3. Linus Ullmark won that game, making 34 saves. Ullmark had a pretty good streak going, giving up two goals in two games, but he let five past him in the loss to the Rangers.
Overall, Ullmark is 13-6-4 with a 2.98 goals-against and .910 save percentage.
Jason Pominville has been in playoff races with both Buffalo and Minnesota. He said, "We haven't helped ourselves with the results we've gotten, but the biggest thing is you can't sit here and dwell on it and feel sorry for yourself, you've got to turn the page.
"I know it's a boring answer, it's kind of cliché, but it does us no good to sit here and think about what we did the last couple of games."
Jack Eichel has points in 10 out of 12 games. It's hard to say that the team needs more from him, but in my opinion, they do. Just watching him on the ice he's letting frustration take over. Lately there have been times where he gets so mad that a play didn't work, he gets way behind the play and starts shaking his head. Picking up 13 points in 12 games is good, but I think it could be so much better if he stopped letting frustration affect his play.
Florida has won two in a row and four out of six. The Panthers are in the middle of a seven-game homestand and are 2-2 so far.
In the Panthers' win over Montreal, captain Aleksander Barkov had three goals and an assist. Barkov is Florida's leading scorer and has 18 points in his last 19 games.
Former Senator Mike Hoffman leads the Panthers in goals with 26.
Vincent Trocheck has been back for 12 games after being injured. He's had trouble getting going, scoring just two goals and none in his last nine.
James Reimer has played in three of the last four games, giving up eight goals. Overall, Reimer is 12-10-5 with a 3.05 goals-against and .901 save percentage. Roberto Luongo missed the Panthers' last game for a death in the family.
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for the pre-game starting at 6:00 when they'll be joined by Phil Housley, Jason Pominville and Casey Nelson.
