Sabres continue road trip in New Jersey

Main storyline: The Sabres are still in search of their first win of the new year and they’ll attempt to get it for the third time tonight when they visit the New Jersey Devils. 

Season series: It’s the first time this season that the teams will meet, and last year’s series had a trio of close contests. Each game was decided by one goal and Buffalo won two of the three. Buffalo will also visit New Jersey next month while the Devils lone trip to the First Niagara Center is scheduled for March. 

Where they stand: With four consecutive losses, the Sabres are 15th in the Eastern Conference, with a three point lead over the last place Hurricanes. Edmonton (27) is the only other team with fewer points. The Devils haven’t been doing much better, though, as they are 14th and have gone 3-5-2 over their last 10 games. 

Recent performance: The Sabres are coming off a brutal 6-1 defeat at Madison Square Garden. Michal Neuvirth was pulled after allowing four quick goals in the first period. The Devils’ last game was on Saturday against Philadelphia, when they defeated the Flyers by a 5-2 score. Jaromir Jagr recorded a hat trick and became the oldest player (42) in the NHL to accomplish the feat. 

“I like to score hat tricks, but I don’t like the thing you said that I’m the oldest guy,” Jagr said. “I don’t want to be the oldest guy, but I’m glad I scored.”

Buffalo notes: Jhonas Enroth is expected to get the start in goal and Tyler Myers is set to return to the lineup. The defenseman has missed the past six games while the Sabres have gone 1-4-1 over that span. 

“It’s a huge factor when one of your top players is out of the lineup. It just shows you how much we really missed Tyler,” Nolan said. “He’s an anchor back there. He controls a lot of minutes. Even when he’s playing his off-game, his off-game is pretty good.”

The Sabres have also recalled Tim Schaller and Phil Varone from the Rochester Americans and both of them will be playing in tonight’s game. 

Opponent notes: The five goal outburst for the Devils on Saturday was something they’ve been waiting for, and they’re hoping to build off that as they close out their three game homestand tonight. 

“Now we’ve got to start taking advantage, we’ve got to go on a run,” Gomez said. “The effort is there. The way we played … there is the formula. These games are all huge. We’re kidding ourselves if we don’t go out like that.”

Conclusion: For the first time this season, the Sabres and Devils will meet in what is expected to be a close, low-scoring affair. Tonight’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game can be seen on MSG. 

Date	H/A	Winner	Score	GWG
1/12/14	A		W 2-1 (SO)	Cody Hodgson
1/28/14	H		L 5-4	Mike Green
11/22/14	A		W 2-1	Torrey Mitchell
3/7/15	A		L 6-1	Jay Beagle
3/16/15	H		L 4-3 (SO)	Evgeny Kuznetsov
12/28/15	H	Washington @ Buffalo 7:05 p.m.	Predict tonight's score

Player	G	A	PTS	Player	G	A	PTS
Ryan O'Reilly	14	18	32	Nicklas Backstrom	10	21	31
Rasmus Ristolainen	7	17	24	Evgeny Kuznetsov	11	20	30
Jack Eichel	11	9	20	Alex Ovechkin	17	13	30
Jamie McGinn	8	9	17	John Carlson	6	21	27
Sam Reinhart	8	7	15	Justin Williams	10	13	23

	Category
15-16-3	Record	26-6-2
8-9-2	Home	14-3-1
7-7-2	Away	12-3-1
2.4	Goals For	3.1
2.5	Goals Against	2.1
29.4	Shots On Goal	30
29	Shots Against	28.2
20.4% (9th)	Power Play Percentage	25.2% (2nd)
78.2% (23rd)	Penalty Kill Percentage	84.7% (5th)

Team	Goaltender	Record	GAA	Save %
	Anders Lindback	6-15-2	3.15	.907
	Marc-Andre Fleury	33-20-98	2.36	.919