Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres are in Anaheim on Thursday to face the Ducks in their first game played in California in over two years. The last time Buffalo was in California was back in 2019 when the Sabres beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 in overtime.
Buffalo also played the Ducks on that west coast road trip and lost, 5-2.
The Sabres enter Thursday night's game with a 4-1-1 record, which has them in second place in the Atlantic Division, five points in back of the undefeated Florida Panthers.
In last year’s COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season, the Sabres never left the Eastern time zone.
The team left for California after practice on Wednesday, and Robert Hagg doesn’t think the three-hour time change will be a big deal.
“I always find that it’s easy to go out west, but it’s harder to come back from there," Hagg said following Wednesday's practice. "You have a few extra hours of sleep when you get there, but when you get back home, it takes a few days to get acclimated to your own time zone again.”
The Sabres had a short, one night trip to New Jersey last week, so Thursday is only their second road game of the season. Mark Pysyk said it’ll be a good time for the players to get to know each other better.
“It’s a lot of time together," Pysyk said following Wednesday's practice. "At home, the young guys hang out a ton, but the older guys have families. But on the road, you’re together the whole time, and I think it is a true road trip. And guys haven’t been on the road in a long time where you can go out for dinner and leave the hotel, so I think everybody is excited just to spend some time together.”
Because of COVID-19, there were hard and fast rules last season, like the players couldn’t leave the hotel and all meals were inside the hotel. Pysyk is so glad that time in the league over.
“Just going for dinner [will be different]," Pysyk said. "Just eating at the hotel the entire year; it’ll be nice to go out to a restaurant and have some normalcy there.”
Hagg also can’t wait to get out and have the chance to socialize with his new teammates.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m looking forward to this trip," Hagg said. "To go out west and spend time with teammates, go out to dinners and feel like normal again, and hopefully play some great hockey out there too.”
I’ve always talked about the Sabres getting offensive contributions from their bottom-six players in the lineup. In six games, Zemgus Girgensons has five points, while Kyle Okposo has four. In three games, Cody Eakin has two points, and the team recently got goals from Drake Caggiula and Anders Bjork. Head coach Don Granato believes it’s essential to get key scoring from the depth players on the roster.
“You’ve got to be ready to score," Granato said. "You may get fewer chances and you may get lesser ice-time, but we need you to score. I can remember telling kids even when I was with the [United States National Team Development Program], I do not need a one- or two-goal scorer at the World Championship, I need guys that can score, because the first two lines get great matchups. Teams are watching, making sure that those guys feel miserable. So you need your bottom-six, however, it lays out to be able to produce and be confident enough to produce.”
Eakin won’t play in this game on Thursday, but he is on the trip with the team.
The Sabres' power play got off to a hot start, going 4-for-8, but has cooled off in the last four games, going just 1-for-10.
Buffalo’s leading scorer, Victor Olofsson, has three goals in his last three games.
Anaheim hasn’t been great this season, as the Ducks occupy sixth place in the Pacific Division standings with a 2-4-1 record. The Ducks are on a four-game losing streak. In those four games, they’ve given up 18 goals.
Troy Terry is their leading scorer with two goals and five assists for seven points in six games. Terry has points in five-straight games.
The 24-year-old was the Ducks' fifth round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft and has just 55 points in 135 NHL games. After a great career at the University of Denver, where he scored 93 points in his last 74 games, Terry went straight from college to the U.S. Olympic team in 2018 and had five assists in five games.
John Gibson has played the last three games in goal for Anaheim and allowed four goals in all three games. Gibson is 2-2-1 this season with a 2.94 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.
With that in mind, it'll be Anthony Stolarz in goal for the Ducks on Thursday. So far this season, he's 0-2-0 with a 3.57 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage. He faced 43 shots on goal against the Minnesota Wild, as well as 36 shots against the Edmonton Oilers.
The 27-year-old was taken in the second round of the 2012 NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. He was signed by the Ducks as a free agent in July of 2019. Stolarz has only played 36 NHL games with Anaheim, Philadelphia and Oilers, going 10-12-4 with a 2.83 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage at 9 p.m. ET on WGR, when we’ll be joined by Granato, Pysyk and Hagg.
