It was another encouraging night in a season that’s been filled with growing pains, and the Buffalo Sabres were rewarded when Tage Thompson secured a 3-2 win with a goal in the third shootout round.
PITTSBURGH – The last time the Buffalo Sabres swept a three-game road trip was in November 2018, in the midst of their 10-game winning streak under former coach Phil Housley.
The sites of those victories? Winnipeg, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
The Sabres will be going for an exact repeat of that trip tonight in PPG Arena when they face the red-hot Pittsburgh Penguins, who have the Eastern Conference's longest current winning streak at five games.
Buffalo (10-15-4) pulled out a 3-2 shootout win Thursday in Minnesota after Tuesday's 4-2 victory in Winnipeg, a defeat that was apparently the final straw in the stunning decision by Jets coach Paul Maurice to announce his resignation Friday morning.
With a back-to-back in the wake of Thursday's game, the Sabres did not have a morning skate today. Malcolm Subban will make his second start in goal after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen manned the net the last five games. Subban gave up six goals on 25 shots in his Buffalo debut Dec. 4 in Carolina and left that game early with a right leg injury.
"That was a very tough game for him. We didn't help him and we need to provide some better help for him," coach Don Granato said before the game. "For any goaltender, that was a tough night and this is a similar situation when you have a team that's a very high-flying offensive, confident team in a building with a long identity within this fan base."
Granato said defenseman Will Butcher will miss the game due to a non-Covid illness, joining Anders Bjork in that category. Casey Fitzgerald is up from Rochester and will make his NHL debut.
"Very concerned and we're very pro-active with both of these guys," Granato said of Bjork and Butcher. "We're limiting them around the rest of the group the first sign of symptoms. Obviously getting them tested right away. Rochester has had their challenges as well as other teams around our league. Obviously a very elusive thing we're all dealing with culturally. The only thing we can do is work hard to minimize it. That's our focus."
The Sabres are 2-0-1 in their last three games and looking for their first four-game point streak since they went 3-0-2 from Dec. 7-14, 2019.
“It was a little bit of disbelief because I used to sit and watch Sabres games growing up, and from the time I was five years old until I was drafted by Minnesota, I was a Buffalo Sabres fan," Tuch said.
The Sabres posted a 2-1 win here on Nov. 16 in a game that saw Pittsburgh pile up a 46-19 advantage in shots on goal but struggled to score against Buffalo goalie Dustin Tokarski.
Since that game, the Penguins are 10-2-1 and have an NHL-best .808 points percentage. They have been perfect on the penalty kill (27-27) and have yielded an NHL-low 1.54 goals per game.
Penguins update
At 15-8-5, the Penguins have moved into fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and are six points behind co-leaders Carolina, Washington and the New York Rangers. Pittsburgh currently holds the top wild-card slot in the Eastern Conference.
“My recollection of all those spots, whether it was Rob or Roger Clemens or Kerri Strug or whoever the athlete was, the producers of those spots nailed it,” longtime SportsCenter anchor Karl Ravech said.
Pittsburgh has outscored its opponents, 20-6, during its current five-game run. Captain Sidney Crosby has two goals, nine points and plus-9 rating in the five games while former Sabres forward Evan Rodrigues has five assists, six points and a plus-8 rating.
Goalies Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith have combined for a 1.20 goals-against average and .984 save percentage during the streak. Jarry goes tonight and carries an 8-1-1 record in his last 10 games into this start. He has allowed just 12 goals in that span and leads the NHL in GAA (1.19), save percentage (.957) and shutouts (3).
Crosby enters tonight's game with 74 career points against Buffalo in just 51 games (24-50). He has points in 15 of his last 18 games against the Sabres (9-15-24).
For the season, Pittsburgh leads the NHL on the penalty overall (63-68, 92.6%) and at home (33-35, 94.3%)
