Buffalo Sabres – Philadelphia Flyers Game Preview
11/16/24 – 7:00 pm EST at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA
Record
Buffalo – 8-8-1 | 17 points – 6th place in the Atlantic Division
Philadelphia – 7-8-2 | 16 points – 6th place in the Metropolitan Division
Special Teams
Buffalo
Power Play – 17.3% (22nd)
Penalty Kill – 76.8% (24th)
Philadelphia
Power Play – 18.5% (20th)
Penalty Kill – 87.9% (3rd)
Top Scorers
Buffalo
Tage Thompson: 16 GP, 11 G, 7 A, 18 PTS
Alex Tuch: 17 GP, 5 G, 11 A, 16 PTS
JJ Peterka: 15 GP, 7 G, 8 A, 15 PTS
Philadelphia
Travis Konecny: 17 GP, 9 G, 10 A, 19 PTS
Matvei Michkov: 15 GP, 6 G, 7 A, 13 PTS
Travis Sanheim: 17 GP, 4 G, 5 A, 9 PTS
Starting Goalies
Buffalo – Devon Levi (2-4-0, 3.87 GAA, .870 save %)
Philadelphia – Ivan Fedotov (2-3-0, 3.98 GAA, .862 save %)
Line Combinations and Pairings
Buffalo
Forwards
Zach Benson - Ryan McLeod - Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka - Dylan Cozens –- Jack Quinn
Jiri Kulich - Peyton Krebs - Jason Zucker
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)
Jordan Greenway (day-to-day – unspecified)
Mattias Samuelsson (out – lower body)
Notes
Buffalo has earned a win in four of its last five games in Philadelphia (4-1-0) and has scored five or more goals in each of the team’s wins in that span.
The Sabres have recorded nine power-play goals in their last nine games, including at least one in each of their last five games. A power-play goal in tonight’s game would give Buffalo its longest power-play goal streak since Oct. 27 to Nov. 10, 2022 (eight games).
Rasmus Dahlin has notched 12 points (4+8) in his last nine games, including at least one point in five straight games (3+4). If Dahlin records a point in today’s game, it will mark the first time he has notched a point streak of six or more games since Oct. 14 to 29, 2023 (eight games; 2+7) and his six-game point streak would be tied for the secondlongest of his career.
Among all NHL teams since Nov. 1, the Sabres are tied for fourth in wins (4) and tied for 10th in points (8). Buffalo has registered at least one power-play goal in six of its seven games played in the month of November and it ranks tied for second in power-play goals (7) and fourth in power-play percentage (30.4) among all NHL teams in November. The Sabres have recorded 26 goals in seven games this month, the third-most goals scored among all NHL teams in November.
Five Sabres skaters (Bowen Byram; 1.00; Rasmus Dahlin; 1.14; JJ Peterka, 1.00; Tage Thompson, 1.00; Alex Tuch, 1.00) have recorded at least one point per game played in November.
Bowen Byram leads all NHL skaters in the month of November in plus/minus (+10). He is one of only three NHL skaters who have averaged 25 or more minutes of time on ice to record a positive plus/minus in that span and the only others (Dahlin; Ryan Pulock) have a plus-1 rating. Byram (175:02 TOI) is one of two Sabres skaters since the NHL began tracking time on ice in 1997-98 to record a plus/minus of plus-10 or better while skating 175 or more minutes in any seven-game span. Tyler Myers (twice) is the only other Buffalo skater to do so.
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