For the first time since January 12, the Buffalo Sabres will play a game at the friendly confines of KeyBank Center.
The Sabres return home from a two-game road trip in Columbus and Dallas to play host to the Chicago Blackhawks. It is the first time that the Sabres and Blackhawks will face one another this season.
Friday night's game marks the first game of a seven-game homestand for the Sabres on home ice. It is only the second time in franchise history that the Sabres will play seven straight games on home ice.
Buffalo has fared relatively well at home this season, going 14-6-3 in 23 games played. That puts Buffalo as the ninth best home team in the NHL in terms of points, and third in the Eastern Conference behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins.
As of Friday, the Sabres sit three points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Buffalo also sits five points back of the Montreal Canadiens for the first Wild Card spot in the East, and sit five points back of the Boston Bruins for third in the Atlantic Division.
The Sabres know that this homestand coming up will be a big chance for the team to go on a run and put themselves in great position for the final push in the playoff picture.
"Any time you get a chance to play at home, it's an opportunity to have a good game in front of your fans and you want to try to make them proud," said Sabres forward Jeff Skinner after the morning skate. "I think for us, it's the start of a big homestand, so today we want to get off to a good start on that foot. It's a good challenge tonight, and hopefully we'll get off to a good start.
"We've sort of had a weird kind of month with the break, a big road trip before it and then a little one right after. We've got some extended time here at home. We want to try and establish the way we want to play right off the bat. That's going to start with tonight."
Skinner still remains in second place for the league's goal scoring race with 31 goals in 50 games. Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin remains atop the league lead for goals with 37 in 50 games.
To this point, Skinner remains on a pace to score 50 goals this season for the first time in his career. His career-high for goals in a season is 37, which was set back in the 2016-17 season while with the Carolina Hurricanes. He scored on Tuesday night against the Blue Jackets to break a four-game goalless drought.
Skinner has had a recent stretch of success against the Blackhawks. The 26-year-old has picked up six points (2+4) in his last six games against the Blackhawks. Before that, Skinner had only one goal in the first six games of his career against Chicago.
In Buffalo's last 10 games against the Blackhawks, the team has struggled with a 1-6-3 record. The Sabres are also 2-6-2 in their last 10 games on home ice against Chicago. However, the Sabres have won their most recent matchup, coming last year on March 17 in 5-3 victory at KeyBank Center. That win snapped a 12-game losing streak to the Blackhawks dating back to December of 2010.
Carter Hutton is expected to get the start in goal for the Sabres. Hutton is 10-4-2 at home this season with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage. Overall this season, Hutton is 15-14-3 with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
Here is how the lines looked for the morning skate on Friday:
Skinner - Eichel - Reinhart
Sheary - Mittelstadt - Rodrigues
Thompson - Sobotka - Pominville
Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo
Dahlin - Bogosian
McCabe - Ristolainen
Scandella - Pilut
Jason Pominville will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Remi Elie on Wednesday in Dallas. It was the first time since April 4, 2006 that Pominville was a healthy scratch in the lineup for the Sabres.
The 36-year-old winger has yet to re-gain his game after a hot start to the season. He has 10 goals and 20 points in 44 games this season, but has just two points in his last 22 games.
Also returning to the lineup on Friday is defenseman Lawrence Pilut. The 23-year-old has been a healthy scratch for the last two games after he struggled in Buffalo's loss to the Vancouver Canucks before the 10-day break.
Pilut is trying to take in as much as he can while sitting in the press box and watching his teammates on the ice.
"I study our system, study our guys out there," Pilut said. "There are guys out here that do so many great things. I just try to study, learn from them and be mentally fresh all the time."
In his first 16 games with the Sabres this year, Pilut has scored a goal and registered five points. That's after putting up an impressive 22 points in just 16 games with the Rochester Americans to start the 2018-19 season.
His play, for the most part this season, has been pretty good in both ends of the ice. Offensively, he finds different ways to get the puck to the net and create offensive chances that way. In his own end, he's been relatively reliable in front of the net and has shown his capabilities of being an exceptional transitional player.
However, the mistakes he has been making lately have really stuck out and hurt the Sabres in the worst of ways. In Vancouver, he attempted to make a blind backhand pass to the front of the net that missed the stick of Rasmus Ristolainen and ended up on the stick of a Canucks forward. That quickly resulted in the puck going to the back of the Buffalo net. Pilut also struggled in the last home game against the Lightning, where he had a pass knocked down in his own end that quickly resulted in a goal against. He also took a late penalty late in the game that resulted in a power play goal against to put the game out of reach.
Despite the recent struggles, Pilut says that he's already learned a lot at the NHL level since getting his most recent call up with the Sabres back on November 27.
"I think I've grown a lot," Pilut said. "Of course I have mistakes that I know I need to repair, but I know that myself. I just have to keep my confidence up and keep playing my game. I have to play better and better. If I can do that and just keep on going, I'll keep growing."
He will return to the lineup in place of Nathan Beaulieu, who played in Dallas on Wednesday night.
Matt Hunwick is the other healthy scratch for the evening, while Casey Nelson remains on injured reserve but was on the ice practicing once again for Buffalo.
The Blackhawks enter Friday's matchup at the bottom of the Central Division standings with an 18-24-9 record and 45 points. That puts Chicago in 29th place in the overall standings, just two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators for 31st place.
Chicago is currently riding a two-game winning streak coming out of their break with wins over the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders.
However, Chicago boasts one of the worst road records in the NHL, currently at 8-14-3 and 19 points. That has Chicago as the 29th-ranked road team in the NHL, and the worst road team in the Western Conference.
The Blackhawks have been red-hot on the power play recently with a goal in nine consecutive games and in 12 of their last 13 games. During the 12-game span, the Blackhawks have converted 41.5-percent of their chances (17-for-41), which ranks first in the NHL since December 23. Overall, the Blackhwaks rank 16th while with the man advantage.
Buffalo native Patrick Kane leads the Blackhawks in scoring, once again, and may be one of the hottest players in the NHL. Kane has 29 goals and 71 points in 50 games played, which is good enough for fifth in league scoring. The 30-year-old is currently riding a nine-game point streak, with seven goals and 14 assists in that span. Those totals were good enough to earn Kane the "Third Star" honors from the National Hockey League for the month of January.
Before that, Kane was riding a seven-game point streak before it came to an end on January 1. He scored seven goals and picked up six assists in that stretch.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews is the next-closest scorer behind Kane with 48 points (22+26) in 51 games this year. He has also been playing well as of late, with 13 points (6+7) in the month of January.
Alex DeBrincat is also putting up a good season in Chicago with 25 goals and 43 points in 51 games. The 21-year-old is three goals off the mark from achieving a new career-high, which he set in his rookie season last year.
Goaltending has been a huge issue this season for the Blackhawks. Corey Crawford has been out of action since December 16 after suffering another concussion. He is not expected to be back in the lineup for Chicago any time soon.
Cam Ward will get the start in goal this evening for his 20th start of the season. Ward has appeared in 21 games for the Blackhawks, posting an 8-8-4 record with a 3.87 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage. Chicago's other netminder, Collin Delia, has fared a bit better in 10 games played this season, posting a 4-2-3 record in nine starts with a 3.00 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. He's expected to start on Saturday night when the Blackhawks head out to Minnesota to face the Wild.
Tune in to the Paul William Beltz Pre-Game Show starting at 6 p.m. with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog when they will be joined by Skinner, Pilut and head coach Phil Housley.
