After setting a new franchise record with their 15th-consecutive loss on Wednesday night, the Buffalo Sabres will get a second go at it against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena.
Wednesday night in Pittsburgh saw Buffalo put up another debacle of a game, getting outshot 42-28 in a 5-2 loss. The game got away from Buffalo relatively early after getting outshot 21-12 in the opening 20 minutes and outscored 2-1. While goalie Dustin Tokarski did all he could to keep Buffalo afloat in the contest, mistakes at both ends of the ice ended up costing the Sabres two more goals late in the second period and that was all she wrote.
Not only did the Sabres set a new franchise record for consecutive losses, but the team now holds the longest losing streak since the start of the salary cap era in the 2005-06 season.
As how the National Hockey League sees this streak, it considers it a "winless" streak due to the two overtime/shootout losses the Sabres have earned. Buffalo will have to double its current total right now if they are to reach the NHL record for consecutive winless games set by the 1980-81 Winnipeg Jets.
However, the Sabres do have seven-consecutive losses in regulation, which is another streak that has sent this 2020-21 campaign spiraling down the drain.
The Sabres did not hold a morning skate in Pittsburgh, so we will not know who will start in goal or any other lineup news until around 5:30 p.m. ET.
Tokarski played admirably on Wednesday in his first NHL start since the 2015-16 season. He faced 42 Pittsburgh shots and was able to turn away 37 of them. However, being a back-to-back situation, it is unclear if he would get a second-consecutive start in goal.
His backup last night was Michael Houser, an ECHL goaltender that was signed to an NHL contract last Friday as the team was making a move to trade Jonas Johansson to the Colorado Avalanche. It is possible we could see him start in net on Thursday, which would mark his first-career start in the NHL.
Last season in 26 games played for the Cincinnati Cyclones, the 28-year-old goalie went 16-5-5 with a 2.27 goals-against average and a 9.02 save percentage. Houser was the backup to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen while with the Cyclones, but managed to see plenty of action when the young netminder would get the call up to the Rochester Americans.
Speaking of Luukkonen, the Sabres could turn to him on Thursday as he's currently up with the Sabres as part of the taxi squad. The 22-year-old was likely to spend as much time as possible this season in Rochester had it not been for the injuries to Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton. However, he finds himself traveling with the Sabres, and an option to be called up from the taxi squad if the team so chooses to.
In eight games this season in Rochester, Luukkonen has helped the Amerks win games with a 5-2-1 record, a 3.19 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage. While the numbers don't look all that great at the time being, he still is regarded as the Sabres' top goaltending prospect and will likely continue to develop his game in Rochester once Buffalo can get some healthy bodies back.
It is still possible that Ullmark could get activated from Injured Reserve on Thursday and make his official return to the lineup. The 27-year-old has missed a full month of action for the Sabres with a lower-body injury suffered back at the start of the winless streak on Feb. 25 against the Devils.
Ullmark has been practicing with the Sabres since Tuesday, and has been going through the process of getting cleared to return to the net.
Buffalo could use Ullmark back in goal since the team has only won one other game this season with anyone else in net. He went 5-4-2 in 12 games played with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage before missing time due to his injury.
Meanwhile, the team is also waiting to see the status of certain players that either missed Wednesday night's game, or was forced to leave early due to injury.
Rasmus Asplund only played two minutes in the first period before taking a high hit and leaving the game. When asked of his status after the game, interim head coach Don Granato said the team was still evaluating him, but it didn't look too promising that he would be available for Thursday.
Tage Thompson did participate in the morning skate for the Sabres on Wednesday, but was a late scratch that evening when he stayed back at the team hotel due to an illness.
Finally, Tobias Rieder did not practice on Tuesday for the Sabres, and was not on the ice with the team for Wednesday night's loss. He's currently dealing with an upper-body injury.
As for the Penguins, they lost forward Kasperi Kapanen on Wednesday night with a lower-body injury that he tried to fight off throughout most of the game. He suffered the injury in the first period, played a total of 10:46 before officially exiting the game at the end of the second period.
In goal, Tristan Jarry got the start on Wednesday, so it's likely that Casey DeSmith will get the green light on Thursday.
The 29-year-old has played exceptionally well this season for Pittsburgh with a 7-3-1 record in 11 games played with a 2.11 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. His lone shutout of the season came against the Sabres back on March 13 in a 3-0 win for the Penguins in Buffalo, where he stopped all 24 shots faced.
In DeSmith's three-career starts against the Sabres, he is 2-0-1 with a 1.66 goals-against average, a .944 save percentage and two shutouts. He'll looking to continue his current shutout streak against the Sabres into a third-straight game.
Faceoff in Pittsburgh on Thursday night is set for 7 p.m. ET with pregame coverage getting underway at 6 pm. ET with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog. During the pregame, you will hear Granato's pregame comments, as well as more from Casey Mittelstadt and one other player.
