By The Numbers: Buffalo vs. Nashville
October 10th, 2009 | by Vance |For the standard AP preview; check here, NHL Game notes; here, for my thoughts, listen here.
The Sabres are coming off an important early season win against Phoenix, while Nashville last played Colorado on Thursday night, coming back from an early deficit to beat the Avs.
I put together this little spreadsheet of some important numbers/stats that will be tale of the tape tonight, so let’s take a look.
| Buffalo Sabres |
Nashville Predators |
|
| 1-0-1 | Record | 2-0-0 |
| 3 | Goals | 6 |
| 3 | Goals Against | 4 |
| 14.30% | PP% | 16.40% |
| 88.90% | PK% | 66.70% |
| 37 | S / Game | 31.5 |
| 20.5 | SA / Game | 30.5 |
| 0.83 | 5-5 F/A | 4 |
First off, the Sabres offense is sputtering. There’s no denying that, with the least total goals in the league. But Lindy switched up the lines this week, moving Tim Connolly off Roy’s wing, replacing him with Drew Stafford. Connolly will return to centering Pominville and MacArthur, creating two solid lines with play making pivots.
However the powerplay is a different story. The Sabres powerplay is an abysmal 14.3%, converting on just 2 of 14 attempts on the man advantage. Luckily, Nashville comes in with the 24th worst penalty kill in the league, allowing goals on 3 of 9 penalty kill situations. Tonight could see that unit break out.
The last stat I want to point out, is the 5 on 5 goals for to goals against ratio. The Sabres’ ratio is currently .83, while the Preds sit at 4, meaning they’ve scored 4 times more even strength goals than their opponents. Thus far this season the Sabres 5 on 5 have dictated play against both the Habs and Coyotes, but we’ll see if Nashville will have anything to say about that.
Last season saw Pekka Rinne upset the Sabres in their only meeting, but so far Dan Ellis has started both games for the Preds in net. We’ll see who gets the call tonight.
As always, let’s go Buffalo!
