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GDT: Buffalo Sabres vs Colorado Avalanche 10pm EST at Pepsi Center


jsb

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With slightly more than a quarter of the season remaining your Buffalo Sabres take on the Colorado Avalanche late tonight. With admittedly an ever diminishing chance to make the playoffs the Sabres must break the recent league trend of losing coming off of the 1 week break and continue its recent good play of winning 3 out of the past 4 games. With 3 of the next 4 games versus the weaker sisters of the league, Colorado and Arizona, the Sabres are in must win territory. With the expected return of Girgensons and Reinhart, the Sabres will be their healthiest coming into this game as they have all season. 

 

As the trade deadline approaches Kane, Kulikov and Franson appear to be the consensus picks to possibly go with a recent article of all 3 being on the 40 most coveted players to possibly be traded. Depending on the outcome of the games leading to the deadline will the Sabres be sellers, will Gionta agree to be moved, is Foligno available?? Also speaking of trade deadline a barrage of rumors of the Avalanche possibly going into tank mode by trading several of their young stars including Duchene and Landeskog. Scouts should again crowd the arena checking on both teams roster and play. 

 

Interesting Sabres stats

 

P. Play Point Leaders     5V5 Point Leaders      SOG Leaders      +/- Leaders

Okposo       20                   Kane     26                Kane       165         ROR    +5

Ristolainen  20                  Gionta   22                Eichel     157         Bailey  +5

ROR            18                    Samson 22               Okposo   142         McCabe +4

Samson      15                    ROR      20                ROR        140         Fedun   +3

Moulson     14                    Eichel    20                Risto       138         Carrier  +2

 

LETS GO BUFFALO

 

Colorado Avalanche News

 

Zadarov out for the season with a broken ankle

Erik Johnson and Rene Bourque expected to return to lineup tonight

Will Jarome Iginla be moved, is he a future HOFer

NHL scouts have been attending games in packs, including a total of 24 at the Colorado-Buffalo matchup last Thursday. Five were at the Kings-Avs game Tuesday. While the reason for that involves a lot more than Iginla, it also is an audition, a chance to show that he could make tangible contributions to a team in the postseason. That’s potentially a tough sell, given his single-digit goal production this season and the fact that he no longer is a top six forward, even for the worst team in the league, in addition to getting time at the point on the power play.

 

ESPN Preview

 

The Buffalo Sabres are rested and ready for a playoff push, and their first stop is in Denver to play the lowly Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

The Sabres (26-24-10) have not played since Sunday and enjoyed their turn at a break that every NHL team has had once in January or February. Buffalo resides in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, but it is just six points behind Toronto for third in the Atlantic Division and the New York Islanders for the second wild card.

With 22 games left, points are at a premium, and there's no better place to start a surge than the friendly confines of the Pepsi Center, where the Avalanche (16-40-3) have won just seven of their 23 games.

A win might be tough considering how teams have performed in their first game after the five-day break. Entering Friday, the collective record is 4-12-4 after the bye.

Saturday's contest is a quick two-game road trip for Buffalo. The Sabres play at Arizona on Sunday before returning home to face Nashville on Tuesday.

Buffalo, which practiced in Denver late afternoon Friday, is expected to get forward Zemgus Girgensons back after he missed seven games with an unspecified injury. Girgensons' ailment was classified as a mid-body injury, but coach Dan Bylsma referred to it as a "full-body injury" before the bye.

Whatever kept Girgensons out is not an issue now and he is set to center the Sabres' third line against the Avalanche. They are also expected to get back forward Sam Reinhart, who missed two games before the bye because of the flu.

The Sabres will need to make a move to make room for Girgensons' return from injured reserve, with Nick Baptiste the likely candidate to return to Rochester of the American Hockey League.

While Buffalo is fighting for the playoffs, the only drama surrounding Colorado is if anything will happen before Wednesday's trading deadline. The Avalanche, last in the NHL in points and wins, are sellers if they want to be.

There have been rumors for months surrounding nearly every player other than Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen -- two players general manager Joe Sakic has deemed untouchable -- but so far the only move was trading Cody McLeod to Nashville last month.

The Avalanche are adding two players to the lineup without making a deal. Forward Rene Bourque is returning after missing 11 games with head and neck injuries suffered against Los Angeles on Feb. 1 and defenseman Erik Johnson is playing after missing nearly three months with a broken fibula.

Johnson will be sporting extra padding after a shot by Dallas' Tyler Seguin on Dec. 3 shelved him.

 

"In hindsight, I wish I had it before, but those are the kind of adjustments you make after the fact when things like that happen," he told HockeyBuzz.com after practice Friday. "It feels good and I wouldn't be saying I'm ready to go if it wasn't perfect."

One of the bright spots in the disappointing season is the play of Rantanen, the team's first-round draft pick from 2015. After spending most of last season and the start of this year with San Antonio of the AHL, Rantanen has come on strong in late January and February. He has eight goals in the last 14 games, including his first career hat trick against Montreal on Feb. 7.

"I feel comfortable after every game," Rantanen said recently. "I'm trying to put pucks more to the net and trying to shoot more, go to the net more. That's how you play well in this league."

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Edited by jsb
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Curious to see how their game back goes.  Probably going to miss the game... unless it happens to be on a TV wherever I am tonight and I can sneak in peeks while out with my wife.  More likely we end up at a place with no TVs though.

 

Here we go.. the next week will provide us something to talk about either way.

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Teams coming off a bye week have lost 12 straight games. The last team to win, played another team coming of a bye week. 

 

Different variables here. A team desperately needing a win to keep playoff hopes alive, getting a couple key players back from injury, playing the last place team in the league. Must win, should win. 

 

Not saying that we will, but I'm hoping the players can throw that stat out the window. 

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Does Ennis deserve to be on fourth line? I dunno

With his play, yes.

He had his chance with Kyle and Jack, he's not going to bump the guys on Jack's line and Gio and Marcus are a much better fit as a checking line.

It's sad but without his quickness he doesn't accomplish much.

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With his play, yes.

He had his chance with Kyle and Jack, he's not going to bump the guys on Jack's line and Gio and Marcus are a much better fit as a checking line.

It's sad but without his quickness he doesn't accomplish much.

 

I agree and have said as much a number of times here -- but, and I may just be optimistically kidding myself, I think I've seen more spring in his step in the last 3-4 games.  The finish isn't there yet, but I think the legs are coming back.

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