Can The Sabres Generate Enough Offense Without Their Top Scorer?

11/14/24 – 7:0 pm EST at Key Bank Center in Buffalo, NY

Record

Buffalo – 7-8-1 | 15 points – 7th place in the Atlantic Division

St. Louis – 7-9-0 | 14 points – 6th place in the Central Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 16.3% (23rd)

Penalty Kill – 76.4% (23rd)

St. Louis

Power Play – 15.0% (T-26th)

Penalty Kill – 77.8% (21st)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 16 GP, 11 G, 7 A, 18 PTS

JJ Peterka: 14 GP, 7 G, 7 A, 14 PTS

Alex Tuch: 16 GP, 4 G, 10 A, 14 PTS

St. Louis

Jordan Kyrou: 16 GP, 5 G, 9 A, 14 PTS

Pavel Buchnevich: 16 GP, 4 G, 6 A, 10 PTS

Philip Broberg: 12 GP, 2 G, 7 A, 9 PTS

Starting Goalies

Buffalo – Devon Levi (1-4-0, 4.10 GAA, .866 save %)

St. Louis – Jordan Binnington (4-7-0, 3.26 GAA, .887 save %)

Line Combinations and Pairings

Buffalo

Forwards (Projected without Thompson available)

JJ Peterka - Dylan Cozens - Alex Tuch

Zach Benson – Peyton Krebs - Jack Quinn

Jason Zucker - Ryan McLeod - Jordan Greenway

Beck Malenstyn - Sam Lafferty – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin - Bowen Byram

Owen Power - Jacob Bryson

Dennis Gilbert - Connor Clifton

Ex., Henri Jokiharju

Goaltenders

Devon Levi

James Reimer

Injuries

Tage Thompson (day-to-day – lower-body)

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (day-to-day – unspecified)

Mattias Samuelsson (out – lower body)

Notes

Buffalo has registered 30 or more shots in six consecutive games against St. Louis. The Sabres have recorded eight power-play goals in their last eight games, including at least one in each of their last four games.

Rasmus Dahlin has notched 11 points (3+8) in his last eight games, including at least one point in four straight games (2+4). If Dahlin records a point in today’s game, it will mark the first time he has notched a point streak of five or more games since Oct. 14 to 29, 2023 (eight games; 2+7).

Tage Thompson is riding an eight-game home point streak and he has registered 12 points (7+5) in that span. If he records a point in today’s game, Thompson would become the first Sabres skater to register a home point streak of eight or more games since Jack Eichel from Dec. 31, 2019 to Feb. 4, 2020 (nine games; 6+5).

In his last six home games, Jason Zucker has posted six points (3+3).

JJ Peterka has registered at least one point in four consecutive games and he has tallied six points in that span (3+3).

Owen Power has collected at least one assist in back-to-back games and an assist in tonight’s game would give him his sixth assist streak of three or more games in his career.

In his last five games, Alex Tuch has posted five points (1+4). Tuch has recorded six points (2+4) in his last six games against the Blues.

Bowen Byram has registered four points (2+2) in his last four games.

Dylan Cozens (2+1) and Zach Benson (1+2) have each recorded three points in their last three games. In six career games against St. Louis, Cozens has registered six points (3+3). 

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