Here’s what you need to know ahead of the final game before the bye week.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
The Sabres will take on the Vancouver Cancuks Friday night at Rogers Arena to close out the three-game road trip. It’s also the last game before the bye week that will lead into All-Star Weekend.
Faceoff is scheduled for 10 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Join us for the GMC Game Night pregame show starting at 9:30 on MSG.
Here’s what you need to know.
Tonight’s matchup
From the Game Notes…
This is the second of two meetings between the Sabres and Canucks this season.
Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Vancouver 4-3 (SO) in Buffalo on Nov. 10, 2018
The Sabres are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Canucks; 2-7-1 on the road.
Four different Sabres goaltenders (Don Edwards, Tom Barrasso, Dominik Hasek, Martin Biron) have earned a shutout on Jan. 18. It is one of only three dates on which the Sabres have recorded four shutouts; the others are Feb. 16 and Nov. 19.
Tonight’s game is the final game in a three-game road trip through Western Canada for the Sabres. Buffalo is 10-3-1 against the Pacific Division this season.
With a win tonight, the Sabres will have swept the Canucks in a season series for the first time since the teams resumed facing off twice a season in 2013-14. Buffalo’s last two-win series against Vancouver came in 1997-98.
Johan Larsson is expected to appear in his 300th NHL game tonight.
Evan Rodrigues has scored in each of Buffalo’s last two games and is seeking his first career three-game goal streak.
Sam Reinhart has already set career-high totals in assists (33) and multi-point games (13) this season. The Sabres are 18-7-4 this season when he records at least one point and 28-4-6 (.816) in his career when he records at least two.
Rasmus Dahlin leads rookie defensemen and is tied for second among all NHL rookies with 26 points (5+21) this season.
Dahlin enters tonight’s game on a career-best, five-game point streak (1+5). He joins Bobby Orr (2x), Phil Housley and Aaron Ekblad as the only defensemen ever to record five-game point streaks before their 19th birthdays. A point tonight would make him the first 18-year-old defenseman to tally a point in six straight games.
During his five-game streak, Dahlin has a plus-4 rating, and has averaged 22:10 of ice time and 3.2 shots per game, also boasting a 52.94 percent shot attempt percentage (CF%) during 5-on-5 play.
With 26 points (5+21) through 47 games, Dahlin is scoring at a higher rate than he did in the Swedish Hockey League last season, when he totaled 20 points (7+13) in 41 games.
Dahlin’s current point total puts him on pace for 45 points this season. It would trail only Phil Housley (57 points in 1982-83) for the most ever recorded by a defenseman before his 19th birthday.