(WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres are in Ottawa for the second-straight Tuesday after beating the Senators last week 3-1. That gives Buffalo two wins in three games and points in three out of four.
The Sabres have jumped ahead of Ottawa and are now 28th in the NHL with a points percentage of .402. The Senators hold on to a win percentage of .386.
The Sabres will welcome Casey Mittelstadt and Zemgus Girgensons back to the lineup on Tuesday night. Mittelstadt missed 16 games after undergoing surgery, while Girgensons was out for five games.
Buffalo needs Girgensons for the penalty kill, because the team has given up eight power play goals in those five games. There was a time this season where the Sabres led the league on the PK, but now they’re 25th.
“He brings a lot of good stability," said Sabres head coach Don Granato. "He’s consistent, he’s in shooting lanes, so it’s nice to have him back. But it’s not only him why we’ve given up the amount of goals we have.”
Granato likes to experiment, and recently has used Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch on the penalty kill.
“We’ve also rotated new guys in on the penalty kill, because these are guys that are part of that future. Because of that, there’s some bumps, and I think that’s a big part of what you’ve seen.”
Mittelstadt can help on the power play, which went 3-for-4 on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. However, the team had only scored once in the four games before that.
The Sabres' power play is ranked 14th in the NHL.
Thompson hadn’t been scoring goals, but he was still contributing in other ways, including assists. He broke the goal scoring skid, netting two against the Flyers, and has four goals and six assists for 10 points in his last eight games.
Jeff Skinner has six goals and three assists for nine points in his last nine games.
Tuch has played nine games with the Sabres and has three goals and seven assists for 10 points.
Rasmus Dahlin has four assists and five points in two games. In three games, Dylan Cozens has two goals and two assists for four points.
On the flip side:
- Victor Olofsson hasn’t scored in 25 games
- Rasmus Asplund hasn’t scored in 24 games, and has only one goal in 33 games
- Anders Bjork has one goal in 23 games
- Cody Eakin has no goals in 21 games and one goal in 29 games
- John Hayden hasn’t scored in 37 games dating back to last season
Michael Houser played last week in Ottawa and allowed one goal on 44 shots. His two-game save percentage is at .948.
However, Granato said Aaron Dell gets the net this time around. He’s 1-7-1 this season with a 3.91 goals-against average and an .893 save percentage.
Ottawa will use Matt Murray in goal on Tuesday. He’s 2-6-1 this season with a 3.36 goals-against average and an .894 save percentage. He’s gone 2-0-1 in his last three starts, allowing eight goals, seven in his last two games.
The Senators have lost three of four games, scoring two or less goals in three of the four games.
Alex Formenton had all sorts of chances against the Sabres last week, but he couldn’t score. That’s the only game in his last six where he hasn’t picked up a point.
Join Schopp and the Bulldog for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when they’ll have Granato, Girgensons and Kyle Okposo.
