Just 21 hours after a pretty complete effort in Toronto, the Calgary Flames (6-5-1, 13 points) trek south across the border to visit the Buffalo Sabres (6-4-1, 13 points). The National Hockey League’s doormat last season, the Sabres are young, fast and fun.
The action starts at 5 p.m. MT on Sportsnet West and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.
The Flames
Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Gaudreau – Monahan – Lindholm
Tkachuk – Backlund – Frolik
Bennett – Jankowski – Neal
Hathaway – Ryan – Dube
Giordano – Brodie
Hanifin – Hamonic
Valimaki – Andersson
David Rittich makes his fourth start of the season, backed up by Mike Smith. Rittich has had three strong outings thus far this season. The Flames have indicated that they won’t make any changes for tonight’s game.
Other than David Rittich in net, sounds like no changes to #Flames lineup tonight in Buffalo.
Head coach Bill Peters says "who would you take out? How do you just justify taking somebody out now? Guys played well, guys deserve to stay in."
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) October 30, 2018
The key for the Flames tonight? More of the same. Since their 9-1 shellacking at the hands of the Penguins, they’ve put together two tight defensive games against two pretty impressive Eastern Conference offensive powers in the Capitals and Maple Leafs. If they can keep the defensive game bottled up consistently, they could become a team to watch in the Western Conference.
The Sabres
Projected lines, via Daily Faceoff:
Skinner – Eichel – Pominville
Sheary – Sobotka – Reinhart
Thompson – Mittelstadt – Okposo
Berglund – Larsson – Girgensons
McCabe – Ristolainen
Scandella – Bogosian
Dahlin – Nelson
Carter Hutton starts for the Sabres, backed up by Linus Ullmark. Remi Elie and Evan Rodrogues are Buffalo’s healthy extra forwards.
The Sabres are a poor man’s Leafs, and that’s meant as a compliment. They have a good, if untested, starter in Hutton. They have some good veterans and a slew of young, exciting plays like Casey Mittelstadt and Rasmus Dahlin. They’re a year or two away from being a team of note in the East, but for now they’re just young, fast and fun to watch.
The Numbers
| CGY | BUF | |
| Wins | 6 | 6 |
| Points | 13 | 13 |
| Corsi Close | 53.0% | 49.3% |
| Power Play | 16.7% | 20.6% |
| Penalty Kill | 71.4% | 75.8% |
Injury Report
The Flames are healthy.
The Sabres are without Nathan Beaulieu (undisclosed) and Scott Wilson (ankle).
History Lesson
This is the first of two games between these teams in 2018-19. The Sabres head to Calgary in mid-January.
Know Thy Enemy
Your Sabres Twitter follows for tonight:
Neal & Backlund Should Never be on the ice together…EVER~!
What a POS call.
Rittich looks so much better than he did at the end of last year.
haha. Well deserved win. For all the negative comments from so called fans all game, don’t celebrate with the rest of us.
3-3 Johnny might be the best in the league
Great ending!
That was earned.
Phone rang, my mother-in-law calling. We were down 1-0 with 2 minutes to go.
Just checked back in and we win! Awesome. Happy for Rittich. The next “Kipper”? Could be…
Yeah…. Suck on that Reffs! …. GIO~! Johnny Hockey! 2points! and Rittich!
100 % the flames should split goalie games at a minimum, last year rittich showed Smith up as a backup this year he’s doing it and looking like a started
Starter
The Flames 9-1 beat down will be a turning point. completely solid defensive efforts tonight and last night holding the opposition to 1 goal or less.
Jonny showed great leadership today – so much passion from the disallowed goal right up to the OT.
Some of the “fans” on this site shouldnt show their face anymore with how quickly they gave up on this team. You know who you are. When youre calling to trade basically everyone and saying Gio is too old just leave please.
I said I can’t imagine when he isn’t quietly good lol
Wohoo, we win in OT!
Is Johnny clutch 3vs 3 or what?
Nice work by Giordano.
I’m trying not to post anything negative this year, I don’t find it helps and I’d rather focus on the positives.
It should come down so close to the end but because James Neal can’t score to save his life right now all the core guys are doing all the heavy lifting.
Rittich is looking so good this year. I don’t get nervous at all with him in net like I do Smith. Well deserved win. Another game well played. Tkachuk is such a gamer. Love him.
The good news: Calgary are 1st in the Pacific in points after an inconsistent start the season.
The bad news: the top 5 scorers on the team are the only ones to get points tonight. Calgary can’t go another year with minimal contribution from secondary scoring.
Don’t be concerned about secondary scoring from guys that are not getting much ice time. Secondary scoring at the start of the year only occurs against weak teams. Colorado next then a few days off and Ducks and Kings two weaklings. If they don’t get some secondary scoring in those two then there is a problem because they should get ice time.
Those 5 players cover 34% of the ice time compared to 66% for the secondary scorers.
Flames have 5 scorers in the top 30 in the NHL.
The game ending was pure joy to watch.
Big kill followed by a big goal. Gio is the man.
Well deserves two points. Bennett was a beast and has been playing some great hockey.
Agree Bennett has been great lately, creating and getting lots of chances, but he is cursed. Both he and his linemates need to step up with the finishing.
Already 3 goals with the goalie pulled this season, and 4 EN goals too, did they even have that many in either category all of last season?
3rd period has been fun to watch so far.
was just talking about this with my buddies. Last year when we pulled the goalie, it would immediately end up in our net. And we almost never scored on empty netters.