(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres play Game 2 of their four-game road trip on Thursday in Calgary against the Flames. Last season was a great game in Alberta, as Tage Thompson’s overtime goal was the only goal scored in a 1-0 Buffalo win.
Buffalo won the first game of this trip on Tuesday night in Edmonton, thanks to Eric Comrie stopping 46 out of 48 Oilers shots.
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Between the two teams early this season, they are a combined 5-1-0.
Calgary has won all three of their games against the Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton and Vegas Golden Knights. Meanwhile, the Sabres beat the Oilers and Ottawa Senators, but lost to the Florida Panthers.
It’s kind of strange that the Flames are undefeated, because neither one of their goalies have a save percentage over .900. In contrast, the Eric Comrie has a save percentage of .929 with the Sabres, while Craig Anderson is at .972. Together, they’re .942, which is currently third in the NHL.
The Dallas Stars lead the league at .966 in three games, while the Carolina Hurricanes are at .959 in two games.
The Sabres announced Thursday that Comrie will get his third-straight start in net.
Jacob Markstrom is expected to be in goal for Calgary on Thursday. He's 2-0-0 to start this season with a 2.50 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage.
At 2.33, the Sabres are seventh in the league in goals-against average.
Rasmus Dahlin leads the Sabres in scoring with three goals and four points in three games. Both JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch have three points.
Buffalo’s power play is still improving slowly, and the only goal it has was during a 4-on-3 chance Tuesday night. Overall, Buffalo is 1-for-12 with the man advantage.
Meanwhile, the penalty kill is 7-for-7 in the games against the Senators and Oilers. They did give up two power goals in six attempts to the Panthers, making them 11-of-13 overall.
The thing that will catch up to the Sabres very quickly is if they continue to give up 40 shots per-game. Buffalo averages the third-worst total of shots given up in a game in the league.
On the other side, the Flames are fourth-best in the NHL, only allowing 25 shots per-game.
Things may not improve for Buffalo on Thursday in the shots department, because Calgary is averaging 36.3 shots per-game.
Both Calgary and Florida had great regular seasons last year, but both failed in the playoffs, so big changes were made. Matthew Tkachuk was sent off to the Panthers, and the Flames got back Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar.
Calgary also signed unrestricted free agent Nazem Kadri from the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.
Kadri is the Flames' leading scorer with a goal and three assists for four points in three games.
Calgary’s power play is operating at a 33.3% clip, which is fifth-best in the NHL.
The Sabres reported on Wednesday that defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin is day-to-day. He left the Oilers game Tuesday after blocking a shot. If he can't play on Thursday, Casey Fitzgerald will play his first game of the season. The team did report from the Thursday morning skate that Lyubushkin was skating.
Pregame coverage on WGR with Brian Koziol starts at 8:30 p.m. ET. Faceoff is set for 9:30 p.m. ET.
