Buffalo Sabres – Detroit Red Wings Game Preview

Buffalo seeks to bounce back from consecutive losses to Florida and the Islanders at home

11/02/24 – 7:00 pm EST at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, MI

Record

Buffalo – 4-6-1 | 9 points – 6th place in the Atlantic Division

Detroit – 4-5-1 | 9 points – 5th place in the Atlantic Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 9.1% (31st)

Penalty Kill – 74.3% (22nd)

Detroit

Power Play – 23.3% (10th)

Penalty Kill – 65.6% (30th)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 11 GP, 7 G, 6 A, 13 PTS

Owen Power: 11 GP, 3 G, 6 A, 9 PTS

Alex Tuch: 11 GP, 3 G, 6 A, 9 PTS

Detroit

Lucas Raymond: 10 GP, 1 G, 9 A, 10 PTS

Alex DeBrincat: 10 GP, 5 G, 3 A, 8 PTS

Patrick Kane: 10 GP, 2 G, 5 A, 7 PTS

Starting Goalies

Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (3-3-1, 3.31 GAA, .890 save %)

Detroit – Cam Talbot (2-1-1, 3.16 GAA, .913 save %)

Line Combinations and Pairings

Buffalo

Forwards

JJ Peterka - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch

Jordan Greenway - Ryan McLeod - Dylan Cozens

Jason Zucker - Peyton Krebs - Jack Quinn

Beck Malenstyn – Sam Lafferty - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ex. Jiri Kulich

Out – Zach Benson (lower-body)

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin - Henri Jokiharju

Bowen Byram - Owen Power

Mattias Samuelsson - Connor Clifton

Ex. Jacob Bryson, Kale Clague

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Devon Levi

Notes

Buffalo has notched at least one power-play goal in eight of its last nine games against Detroit, including one in each of its last three against the Red Wings. In each of their last six wins against the Red Wings, the Sabres have recorded five or more goals.

Tage Thompson is riding a career best eight-game point streak (6+6) and a point in today’s game would extend the streak to nine games. A point tonight would give Thompson the longest point streak by a Sabres skater since Jeff Skinner notched a 10-game point streak (8+9) from Nov. 28 to Dec. 31, 2022. An assist in tonight’s game would give Thompson a seven-game assist streak, the longest assist streak of his career.

Owen Power is riding a six-game point streak and he has posted eight points (2+6) in that span. Power’s current point streak is the longest of his career and a point in tonight’s game would make him the seventh Sabres defenseman, and the third since 1991 (Rasmus Dahlin, Uwe Krupp) to record a point streak of seven or more games.

In his last eight games, Jason Zucker has posted nine points (3+6), including at least one in each of his last three games (3+2). He has registered one goal in three consecutive games and a goal tonight would give Zucker his 200th career goal and his longest goal streak since he notched at least one goal in four consecutive games from March 7 to 12, 2023 (5+0) with Pittsburgh.

Rasmus Dahlin has recorded six points (1+5) in his last six games, including at least one in each of his last three games. Dahlin is one assist away from tying Doug Bodger for the fourth-most assists by a defenseman in franchise history (233) and is one point away from reaching 300 points in his career.

JJ Peterka has registered seven points (4+3) in his last seven games.

Sam Lafferty is expected to play in his 300th NHL game tonight.

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