Flyers Look To Stay Sharp Against The Sabres

The Philadelphia Flyers (6-4-1) face a tough road matchup tonight when they head up to Buffalo to take on the Sabres (6-4-0).

The Flyers are coming off a 5-1 thrashing of their former goaltender, Brian Boucher and his Carolina Hurricanes.

Buffalo has lost three of their last four. The Sabres last played on Saturday night when they fell to the Florida Panthers, 3-2.

Matchup

This is the first of four meetings this season. Last year, the two teams split the regular season series.

The last time the two teams met was in the first round of last year's playoffs, which saw the Flyers come out victorious in seven games.

In 154 meetings between these two teams the Flyers are 73-61-20. When playing in Buffalo, the Flyers are 29-38-8, all-time.

 Even with all the changes made this summer, the Flyers are still managing to score 3.73 goals per game.

The Sabres are averaging 2.90 goals per game with no help from former Flyer Ville Leino who has just one goal and one assist in ten games with his new team.

The most disturbing stat for the Flyers is the 3.27 goals per game they are surrendering (28^th). With the addition of Ilya Bryzgalov as well as the strength of the Flyers defense, goals against should be the least of their worries.

The Sabres are sixth in the league in goals against, allowing just 2.20 goals per game.

When it comes to special teams, the Flyers are successfully converting on 22.2% of their power plays (6^th). The Sabres are just as capable scoring 21.9% of the time (9^th).

The Sabres are much better on the penalty kill than the Flyers killing off the penalty 91.9% of the time, second best in the league. The Flyers rank nineteenth in the league with an 81.5% kill rate.

Thomas Vanek leads Buffalo in goals with eight and points with fifteen. He is followed closely by Jason Pominville with five goals and fourteen points and Luke Adam with nine points. Robyn Regehr and Tyler Ennis are the only players on the Sabres roster who have yet to get a point this season.

Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with seven goals and fifteen points. Jaromir Jagr is second on the team with five goals and eleven points. The recently red hot Scotty Hartnell rounds out the top-three with four goals and eleven points.

In The Nets

Ilya Bryzgalov will get the start tonight. He is 4-4-1 with a 3.16 GAA and a not so impressive .880 save percentage.

The Sabres will go with Ryan Miller tonight. He is 4-4-0 with one SO loss and has a 2.14 GAA and .930 save percentage.

Mash Unit

The Flyers have placed Chris Pronger on IR  to make room for Harry Zolnierczyk and Ben Holmstrom who will be replacing Matt Read and Danny Briere, both of whom have upper body injuries and will miss tonight's game.

The Probable line combinations for tonight are as follows:

Hartnell-Giroux-Jagr

JVR-Couturier-Voracek

Simmonds-Talbot-Nodl

Harry Z-Holmstrom-Rinaldo

What The Puck Do You Think?

What period will the Flyers score their first goal?

Which team scores first Flyers or Sabres?

Which team will generate more shots on goal tonight?

Please leave you predictions in the comment section

Step Up Players

Couturier

Simmonds

Meszaros

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