Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres are looking for their second three-game winning streak of the season Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators. Buffalo won its first three games of the season over the Montreal Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks.
The Sabres have scored 11 goals in the two wins over the Habs and New York Islanders. It’s also helped that they’ve been perfect on the penalty kill in both games, killing 5-of-5 penalties. Before that, the Sabres had given up a power play goal in eight-straight games.
Mattias Samuelsson will be the healthy scratch on defense, as head coach Don Granato continues his rotation that includes everybody except Rasmus Dahlin and Henri Jokiharju.
The Sabres confirmed that general manager Kevyn Adams told reporters that Drake Caggiula is having fusion surgery on his neck that will require 6-8 months of recovery time. Caggiula will be an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Casey Mittelstadt likely won’t return for the Ottawa game, but has a chance to play Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche.
Tage Thompson has points in five-straight games, and in his last 14 games has six goals and 10 assists for 16 points.
Alex Tuch has played 16 games with the Sabres and has seven goals and 12 assists for 19 points.
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Dylan Cozens and Peyton Krebs have played the last two games together on a line and have three assists each.
In January, the Sabres split two games with the Senators in Ottawa.
Craig Anderson gets to play for the first time against his old team. Anderson played 435 of his 661 NHL games with the Sens.
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Ottawa is right behind the Sabres, as Buffalo’s points percentage is .417. The Senators sit at .413. They have lost three of their last four games.
The Senators won’t have Matt Murray in goal, as he got injured near the end of their last game. Before giving up four goals in that game, Murray had given up only eight goals in his last six games.
Anton Forsberg is 9-8-1 this season with a 2.88 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.
Brady Tkachuk leads the Senators with 35 points. That’s one more point than the Sabres' leading scorer in Thompson.
Ottawa has some other significant injuries as Drake Batherson, Thomas Chabot and Josh Norris are out.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST as we’ll be talking to Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams. We’ll also hear from Granato and Anderson.
