Buffalo And New York In A Desperate December Battle

12/11/24 at 7:00 pm at Key Bank Center in Buffalo, NY

Record

Buffalo – 11-13-4 | 26 points – 7th place in the Atlantic Division

NY Rangers – 14-12-1 | 29 points – 5th place in the Metropolitan Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 14.5% (30th)

Penalty Kill – 80.9% (12th)

NY Rangers

Power Play – 22.5% (12th)

Penalty Kill - 85.9% (2nd)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Alex Tuch: 28 GP, 8 G, 16 A, 24 PTS

Tage Thompson: 23 GP, 15 G, 7 A, 22 PTS

Jason Zucker: 28 GP, 7 G, 13 A, 20 PTS

NY Rangers

Artemi Panarin: 27 GP, 15 G, 19 A, 34 PTS

Will Cuylle: 27 GP, 10 G, 12 A, 22 PTS

Adam Fox: 27 GP, 0 G, 22 A, 22 PTS

Starting Goalies

Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (8-7-3, 2.82 GAA, .902 save %)

NY Rangers – Igor Shesterkin (9-10-1, 2.95 GAA, .910 save %)

Line Combinations and Pairings

Buffalo

Forwards

Peyton Krebs – Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch

Zach Benson - Ryan McLeod - Jason Zucker

JJ Peterka - Jiri Kulich - Dylan Cozens

Beck Malenstyn - Tyson Kozak - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ex. Jack Quinn

Defense

Jacob Bryson - Bowen Byram

Owen Power - Henri Jokiharju

Mattias Samuelsson - Connor Clifton

Ex. Dennis Gilbert, Ryan Johnson

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

James Reimer

Injuries

Rasmus Dahlin (day-to-day - back spasms)

Sam Lafferty (day-to-day - lower body)

Related: Sabres Are In An Endless Cycle Of Dysfunction

Notes

The Sabres have earned at least one point in seven of their last eight games against the Rangers (4-1-3), including at least one point in each of the last three contests between Buffalo and New York (2-0-1). Buffalo has allowed just three power-play goals in the team’s last 31 penalty-kill opportunities (90.3 percent).

Jason Zucker has registered six points (2+4) in his last four games, including one assist in each of the games in that span.

Tage Thompson has registered 16 points (11+5) in his last 14 home games.

Owen Power has recorded one assist in back-to-back games.

Beck Malenstyn has tallied one assist in two consecutive games and an assist tonight would give him the longest assist streak of his career.

Zach Benson (1+4) and Dylan Cozens (2+3) have both recorded five points in their last five home games.

JJ Peterka’s next point will be the 100th of his NHL career.

Jason Zucker has recorded 20 points (7+13) and he is on pace for 58 points this season. If Zucker records 55 or more points this season, he would become the Sabres’ first free agent acquisition to do so since Randy Burridge in 1995-96 (58 points; 25+33).

Zucker is on pace to score 21 goals this season and he would become Buffalo’s first free-agent acquisition to record 20 or more goals in a season since Kyle Okposo in 2021-22 (21 goals). Zucker leads all Sabres skaters in primary assists at 5-on-5 (8), three more than the next-closest Buffalo skater (Bowen Byram, Owen Power). He also ranks first among all Buffalo skaters in primary assists at all strengths (11).

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