The Buffalo Sabres continue their holiday road trip with an afternoon matinee against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres are currently nursing a four game losing streak and facing a Flyers team that the Sabres last beat two weeks ago. On this four game losing streak, the Sabres have scored six goals in four games and half of those goals have come on the power play. The Sabres rank dead last in total goals and 5 on 5 goals with 52 and 16 respectively. The Flyers are third in the league in even strength against with 33. What does this all mean for the Sabres, not sure. The Sabres have scored five goal in two games against Philadelphia and scored three games on the road in their last game.
The Flyers are going to be without leading scorer Danny Briere after being suspended for his late hit on Scott Hannan of the Colorado Avalanche. Briere hit Hannan late after Hannan scored in Wednesday night's game. The Flyers still have their fair share of scorers though with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Richards has 10 goals and 21 points while Carter has 9 goals and 22 points. Ray Emery will be in net for the Flyers and has been solid in net for the Flyers going 11-6-1 with a 2.57 GAA and .910 SV% but has a 3.06 GAA and .906 SV% in his career against the Sabres.
Keys To The Game
Sabres: If the Sabres are going to have any chance in winning this game they are going to have to find the back of the net. The Sabres should score first and score often against Ray Emery. The Sabres need to control the pace of the game and be on their game for a full sixty minutes. The Flyers are a dangerous scoring machine that could score at any time.
Flyers: Trap the Sabres. The Sabres are having a hard time scoring so keeping them in a frustrating neutral zone trap will force the Sabres to make mistakes. Keeping the offense frustrated will produce turnovers and mistakes and those mistakes will lead to Flyers scores.