Raleigh, N.C. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres will have trouble getting to the same offensive game they had Thursday in St. Louis against the Blues when they face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
Buffalo dominated all the possession numbers and were all over the Blues, outshooting them 46-20. However, Carolina - although not as good as they used to be defensively - usually won’t let you get into that kind of a game.
Now there is an outlier for the Canes, as the Tampa Bay Lightning scored eight goals on Antti Raanta last Friday night. With Freddie Andersen out injured, Raanta is 6-3-0 with a 3.47 goals-against average and an .854 save percentage.
Their young goaltender, Pyotr Kochetkov, is 3-4-1 this season with a 2.93 goals-against average and an .878 save percentage. He gave up five goals on just 16 shots to the New York Islanders on Thursday, but he’s played six out of the last eight games for head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
The Canes haven’t been near as good defensively this season, as they’re 20th in the NHL with a goals-against of 3.32. On the other side of that, they’re eighth in offense, scoring 3.36 goals per-game.
The Hurricanes have struggled on the power play lately, going 1-for-18.
Sebastian Aho is just the next guy in a long history of players who absolutely kill the Sabres. In the Canes' Nov. 7 overtime win over Buffalo, Aho assisted on the goal that made it 2-1, and also set up Martin Necas for the game-winner.
In 17 games against Buffalo, Aho has 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points.
Overall, Aho is Carolina’s leading scorer with 20 points in 19 games.
In their last 17 games against Buffalo, Carolina is 15-2-0.
Coming from college, Ryan Johnson is playing an NHL schedule for the first time. He’s struggled his last few games, so head coach Don Granato is doing with him what he’s done with other players like Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka.
Granato is going to give Johnson Saturday off, and give him a chance to take a breath and gather himself. I wouldn’t expect him to be out of the lineup for too long.
Brandon Biro is going into the lineup for Isak Rosen, and will play with Tyson Jost and Victor Olofsson.
Alex Tuch has 15 points in his last 14 games, while Peterka has 16 points in 16 games.
With three games in four nights, Eric Comrie gets the net on Saturday. In five games, he’s 1-3-0 with a 3.45 goals-against average and an .876 save percentage.
Buffalo lost a game in St. Louis on Thursday, where they dominated offensively - outshooting the Blues 46-20 - but still lost, 6-4.
In 23 games, this team has drastically underachieved. However, they enter Saturday just three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Granato, Kyle Okposo and Erik Johnson.
