Nashville, Tenn. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres could have an advantage on Saturday when they face the Predators in Nashville. While Buffalo was in their hotels on Friday, the Predators were in Chicago and lost to the Blackhawks, 6-2.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff expects Tage Thompson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to return to the lineup for Buffalo on Saturday, though he wasn’t sure about the status of forward Tyson Kozak.
The Sabres are looking to win five games in-a-row for the first time since January of 2023. Buffalo has put together seven-straight good games, going 5-2-0, but are still in last place in the Eastern Conference and 12 points out of a playoff spot.
In those seven games, the Sabres are fifth in the NHL in points percentage at .714, third in goals-for at 3.57 per-game, and second in penalty killing, going 15-of-16 (93.8%).
On the other side of the coin, their power play has been horrific at 4.8%, which is 30th. Buffalo is a putrid 1-for-21 with the man advantage.
In this recent seven-game stretch, Thompson is eighth in league scoring with 10 points. His six goals are sixth, and his plus-8 leads the NHL.
Rasmus Dahlin is still on an assist binge, picking up 21 assists in 19 games. That’s second in the NHL behind Nate MacKinnon’s 23 assists. Dahlin hasn’t scored a goal since Nov. 27, which covers 24 games.
Luukkonen has won his last three starts, and four out of his last five. In those five games, he has a goals-against average of 2.61 and a save percentage of .907
After winning five-straight games, Nashville has now lost six in-a-row. They actually are now worse than the Sabres with a .406 points percentage.
Goal scoring has been challenging for Nashville, as they’re 31st in the league, scoring 2.58 goals per-game. All this is pretty shocking, considering the Preds picked up Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault over the summer.
Stamkos only has 33 points in 53 games this season, while the underachieving Ryan O’Reilly has 30 points in 50 games.
On Jan. 31, the Sabres got out to a 2-0 lead over the Predators, only to blow that lead. Buffalo flipped the script, though, as instead of panicking and playing not to lose, they kept trying to go for it.
Jiri Kulich scored the game-winning goal for Buffalo off a 3-on-2 late in the third period to secure a 4-3 win.
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Since Juuse Saros played in Chicago, Justus Annunen will get the start for the Predators on Saturday. He’s 12-7-0 this season with a 3.01 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.
Annunen hasn’t played since he gave up four goals on 27 shots to the Sabres. Before that, he had won four-straight starts.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 7 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff, Thompson, Jason Zucker and Henri Jokiharju, who has now been chosen by Team Finland for the 4-Nations Face-Off.
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