Senators road record 0-3-1
Sabres home record 0-3-1
Ottawa last 8 visits to Buffalo are a perfect 8 wins 0 losses
Daniel Alfredson has 4 points in his last 3 games
Brian Elliot lifetime against Buffalo is 8-0 with a 1.87 gaa and .937 save percentage
Last 4 Ottawa visits to Buffalo Ryan Miller is 0-3-1 with a gaa of 2.74
The last 6 out of 8 contests between the two teams have gone over the total
Ottawa had a serious bag skate given to them by their coach Cory Clouston yesterday after followed a brief but serious meeting about how important they feel this game is to get their ship righted immediately
The two teams met early in this young season, a game in which Buffalo won 2-1
Three big changes from that game are no Jason Pominville this time for Buffalo/Jason Spezza did not play in that first game for Ottawa/Elliot was not in net for Ottawa, Leclaire was
Ottawa has shuffled their defense up for this game to shake things up and have called up gritty veteran defenseman David Hale to steady the blueline and as they put it "calm things down" Hale is solid stay at home D man who likes to take the body and is careful with the puck, a solid off the glass and out kinda guy
It has been 17 years since Buffalo lost their first 5 home games and that is what will happen if they lose tonight
The 0-3-1 road start for Ottawa is their worst since their birth year into the NHL when they set an NHL record by losing their first 38 road games and for those that don't know that year was 1992-93
First glance Sabres look juicy and I am sure many are leaning on Ottawa looking ahead to Montreal Saturday night but if they lose that won't be why I am certain of that. Cory Clouston if nothing else is an excelllent motivator and a bag skate and speach by him, tossing in shuffling the defense and calling up the veteran will have their attention. Buffalo will have to earn these points tonight which ofcourse they are capable but man a lot of things have to change between these two here for that to happen.
Elliot could go out and lay and egg tonight for sure but for us hockey guys one thing we should know is when a goalie feels comfortable in a certain barn and or against a certain team that usually stays that way. Some good examples would be Anterro Nittymaki being 17-0 against Atlanta lifetime. Mary Brodeur plays in Montreal he plays incredible and wins you can just mark it down and it just happened again last night. Rolosons mastery playing in Toronto and again at age 41 we just saw that the other night as he stood on his head against the then unbeaten Leafs. Broduer in Buffalo has an incredible record and gaa and boom agian he just shut them out their this season already 1-0 in overtime. That is one trend that has stayed steadier in hockey than any I know of through the years. Perhaps as I say that changes tonight along with all these other trends with both goalies and teams in this building tonight.
I see almost this whole forum is willing to bet literally that they do.
Goodluck on the game whomever you have. I just wanted to contribute. I wanted to do this earlier but time did not permit. Should be the game of the night easy. Both teams are beyond desperate right now as much as you an be this early in the season.
No time to proof read, hope it is all decent enough.
PB