Flyers will not have to deal with Jack Eichel as Sabres’ captain ruled out for today’s game
While the Flyers get some of their best players back, the Sabres will be without their No. 1 center.
Sabres captain Jack Eichel will miss today’s game against the Flyers with a lower-body injury.
Eichel could not play in Thursday’s game against New Jersey after coming up lame in warmups. He has a team-high 12 assists, but his two goals in 16 games is well off his pace from last season when he had 36 goals in 68 games.
Buffalo, already without starting goaltender Linus Ullmark for the two-game weekend series, will start Carter Hutton in net this weekend.
The Flyers and Sabres split a pair of games last month at the Wells Fargo Center, including Brian Elliott’s 40-save shutout on Jan. 19. Elliott will start today for the Flyers. Carter Hart gets tomorrow’s game.
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Buffalo is in last place in the East Division and, besides being a little wounded, is dealing with the tension of the Jeff Skinner situation. Skinner, a top-line winger making $9 million a year, had been a healthy scratch the last three games. He will be in the lineup today against the Flyers.
Sabres coach Ralph Krueger had said Skinner’s benching was a matter of “accountability.”
“Hopefully this proves to be a good little regroup to launch an excellent rest of the season for Jeff,” the Sabres coach said.
Bruising Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen will play his first game in a month after a severe battle with COVID-19.
Some other notes on today’s game:
Claude Giroux will pass Bill Barber for second place on the Flyers’ all-time list of games played. The top five heading into today: 1. Bobby Clarke, 1,144; t2. Claude Giroux, 903; t2. Bill Barber, 903; 4. Brian Propp, 790; 5. Chris Therien, 753.
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Giroux has 39 points in 40 career games against the Sabres (10g, 29a).
Scott Laughton will center a line with Oskar Lindblom and Jake Voracek. All three players, plus defenseman Justin Braun, recently were removed from the Flyers’ COVID-19 protocol list. Only Travis Konecny, who could come off as early as tomorrow, remains on the list.
This will be the first meeting since Jan. 19 when Ivan Provorov was pushed into Hutton by Buffalo defenseman Brandon Montour. The collision eventually forced Hutton out of the game.
Flyers forward Nic Aube-Kubel also picked a $4,600 fine for punching Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin late in the game the night before. Bottom line: there could be some fireworks this weekend.
Taylor Hall has 27 points in 22 games against the Flyers.
The Sabres power-play is first in the league at 34.6%. They have at least one power-play goal in five consecutive games, and in 11 of their last 12. They were 2 for 4 in their win over the Flyers, and 0 for 3 in their loss.
The Flyers have given up at least one PPG in four straight and their penalty kill (70.2%) is ranked 30th out of the 31 NHL teams.
In a random sampling of local ‘books, BetMGM had the best Flyers money line at -145 and the best puck line (Flyers -1.5) at +185. Best odds for over 5.5 goals was DraftKings at -103, best for under 5.5 goals was BetMGM, William Hill and PointsBet at -105. If you like the Sabres, PointsBet was at +145 as of just after noon.