Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Preview And Notes- Buffalo Sabres/Detroit Red Wings

01/18/2015 at 10:18am EST

After tonight's game, the Buffalo Sabres will not play until Tuesday, January 27th. A nice, extended All-Star break!

Also note the game is an 8:00pm ET start and is on NBCSN.

via NHL.com,

Season series: The Detroit Red Wings are 2-0-1 against the Buffalo Sabres, including a 3-1 win at First Niagara Center on Tuesday. Tomas Tatar (four goals), Pavel Datsyuk (one goal, three assists) and Gustav Nyquist (one goal, three assists) each have four points against the Sabres this season.

Sabres team scope: The losses keep piling up for Buffalo; it suffered its 10th straight defeat in regulation with a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday. Zemgus Girgensons scored twice for Buffalo, which had a decent response after a 7-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. "The effort was there and obviously some of the things that happened when you have a couple young defensemen, that's going to happen occasionally," coach Ted Nolan said. "But at least the effort was way better."

Red Wings team scope: Detroit will also be playing its second game in as many nights; the Red Wings earned a 5-2 victory against the Nashville Predators at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday. Tatar scored twice and had an assist to lead Detroit to its third straight win. Tatar reached the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career; he had 19 goals in 73 games last season. "I'm not really thinking about it right now, but obviously I'm happy I did it and hopefully I'll keep scoring and help the team pick up wins," Tatar said. "Right now I don't realize it. I took it as just another game and we won and that's the big thing right now." Petr Mrazek, filling in for injured starter Jimmy Howard (groin) made 34 saves Saturday, and coach Mike Babcock said he'll play against Buffalo.

TEAM STATS
GP RECORD HOME ROAD L10 G/GP GA/GP PP% PK% PIM/GP S/GP SA/GP FO%
Buffalo Sabres 46 14-29-3 10-13-2 4-16-1 0-10-0 1.72 3.48 9.4 74.4 12.5 23.2 35.3 45.2
Detroit Red Wings 45 25-11-9 14-4-6 11-7-3 7-3-0 2.82 2.31 24.6 85.7 8.2 30.3 27.1 54.2

DETROIT RED WINGS

THE MATCHUP

- Tonight is the 124th all-time meeting between DET and BUF
- Tonight is the 4th of 4 meetings this season between DET and BUF, 2nd of 2 in DET
- BUF won the teams’ 1st meeting this season 3-2 in a shootout on 11/2 (Tatar, Datsyuk scored for DET, Flynn, Stewart scored for BUF; Girgensons scored SO winner)
- DET won the 2nd meeting of the season series 6-3 at JLA on 12/23 (Weiss, DeKeyser, Zetterberg, Tatar (2) and Franzen scored for DET; Deslauriers, Stewart and Benoit scored for BUF)
- DET won the 3rd meeting this year 3-1 on 1/14 in BUF (Helm, Nyquist and Tatar scored for DET; Weber scored for BUF)
- DET’s all-time record vs. BUF: 56-52-13-2
- DET’s all-time home record vs. BUF: 38-18-5-1
- DET is 14-1-2 in its last 17 games vs. BUF
- Pavel Datsyuk has 20 points (9-11-20) in 19 games vs. BUF
- Henrik Zetterberg has 10 points (2-8-10) in 15 games vs. BUF
- Darren Helm has 6 points (5-1-6) in 11 games vs. BUF
- Danny DeKeyser has 5 points (1-4-5) in 6 games vs. BUF
- Stephen Weiss has 24 points (9-15-24) in 39 games vs. BUF
- BUF’s all-time top scorers vs. DET: Chris Stewart (8-7-15 in 26 GP), Matt Moulson (5-3-8 in 10 GP) and Drew Stafford (1-6-7 in 12 GP)
- BUF F Matt Ellis broke into pro hockey with the Red Wings, recording six points (2-4-6) in 51 games with DET from 2006-08 and 153 points (69-84-153) with the Grand Rapids Griffins from 2003-07
- BUF G Michal Neuvirth played for the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers from 2006-08, posting a 31-12-5 record, a 2.38 GAA, a 0.931 SV% and 4 SOs and was a member of the team’s 2007 championship squad
- BUF head coach Ted Nolan was drafted by DET (5th round/78th ov./1978) and had 20 points (5-15-20) with DET from 1981-84
- BUF general manager Tim Murray spent the 1993-94 season as a scout for DET

ULLMAN, FEDOROV IN SIGHT

Henrik Zetterberg currently stands one point behind Norm Ullman for 7th in DET history in scoring, notching his 757th career point with a goal last night versus NSH.
With 2 assists last night, Pavel Datsyuk needs just 3 more to tie Sergei Fedorov for 5th in assists in DET history.

LEAGUE LEADERS

Datsyuk: T22nd with 6 PPG, T8th with 4 GWG, T21st with a 16.7 SH%, 15th with 55.3 FO%
Glendening: T13th with 55.4 FO%
Kronwall: 26th with 23:45 TOI
Nyquist: T16th with 17 goals, T3rd with 9 PPG, T8th with 4 GWG, T24th with a 16.3 SH%
Sheahan: 28th with 53.0 FO%
Tatar: T8th with 20 goals, T22nd with 6 PPG, T2nd with 5 GWG, 16th with a 17.1 SH%
Zetterberg: T16th with 26 assists, T17th with 141 shots
TEAM: 3rd in goals against/game (2.31), 3rd on power play (24.6%), 5th on penalty kill (85.7%), 3rd in shots against/game (27.1)

RECENT/UPCOMING MILESTONES

- Weiss played in his 700th NHL game on 1/13 at BUF
- Glendening played his 100th NHL game on 1/15 at STL
- Datsyuk surpassed 550 career helpers with 2 on 1/17 vs. NSH and is 3 behind Sergei Fedorov for 5th in DET history
- Tonight is Babcock’s 750th game as the coach for DET; it’s also 914 for his career, tying Toe Blake for 28th in NHL history
- Abdelkader and Nyquist each stand one goal shy of 50 in the NHL
- 1 more win will give DET 2,800 as a franchise

THIS DATE IN RED WINGS HISTORY

January 18, 1974 – DET acquires Jim Rutherford and Jack Lynch from PIT in exchange for Ron Stackhouse.

BUFFALO SABRES

TONIGHT’S GAME

SABRES at RED WINGS
This is the fourth and final meeting between the Sabres and Red Wings this season.
Last meeting: Detroit defeated Buffalo, 3-1, in Buffalo on Jan. 13
The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Red Wings; 1-7-2 on the road.
This is the 124th game all-time between Buffalo and Detroit; Buffalo has a 54-53-16 series record.
The Sabres are 19-36-7 on the road against the Red Wings all-time.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

The Sabres are looking for their first win in Detroit since Oct. 13, 2006.
With a win tonight, Buffalo would have two wins in a season against Detroit for the first time since 1989-90.
Brian Flynn has four points (1+3) in three games against the Red Wings this year.
Mike Weber scored his first goal of the season when these teams met on Tuesday in Buffalo and now has a point in each of his last two games against the Red Wings (1+1).
Chris Stewart leads all Sabres with 15 points (8+7) in 26 career games against the Red Wings.
Matt Moulson has eight points (5+3) in his last eight games against the Red Wings.

BACK-TO-BACK

Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s 11th of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, after a 4-3 loss vs. PHI. The Sabres are 2-9-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 3-6-1 in the second game. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to- back sets is: four points (1), three points (0), two points (3), one point (1) and zero points (5).

LOGGING BIG MINUTES

After last night’s game, Tyler Myers led all Sabres and ranked 11th in the league with an average time on ice of 25:11 per game.
He skated a team-high 22:09 on Jan. 6 at NJD in his return from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for seven games and has topped 23 minutes in four of five games played since then, including 27:33 last night vs. PHI.
Myers has averaged 24:51 of ice time in his last 10 games despite playing only 13:10 in the game in which he sustained his injury. He entered that game having averaged 28:11 in the previous 10 games; it was the highest 10-game average of his career.
Myers last led the Sabres in ice time in a season in his rookie season of 2009-10, when he averaged 23:44 per game.

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