As the Sabres make their way to Long Island tonight, they will be looking to snap a four game losing streak, and they will try against New York.
For the first time in a long time, these two teams meet without Thomas Vanek being on either roster, or even Matt Moulson for that matter.
They’ve met just one time this season, when the Sabres rallied and won in a shootout five months ago at Nassau Coliseum. Buffalo will close out its’ regular season by hosting the Islanders in mid April.
Despite the losing streak, the Islanders have had an even worse stretch of games during the last few weeks. They’ve gone 3-6-1 over their last 10 games while Buffalo went 4-6. Both teams sit toward the bottom of the league in the standings, but these matchups are always a good fight.
The Islanders are coming off a 4-3 loss to San Jose on Friday night. The two goal deficit was too much to overcome as they Sharks hung on.
“For the most part I thought we played a strong hockey game, and a couple of mistakes in the defensive zone cost us,” Okposo said. “This is kind of how it’s been lately. We haven’t made a ton of mistakes, but they’ve cost us.”
With John Tavares injured, Okposo becomes the most dangerous player on offense. He has recorded 65 points (26 goals, 39 assists) in 66 games on the season.
The Sabres are looking to improve after a lopsided loss to Carolina. The scoreboard read 4-2, but it could’ve been much worse without Michal Neuvirth in goal, who stopped 51 shots on the night.
“The second period was certainly awful,” Ted Nolan sad. “We were making some bad decisions with the puck. We weren’t forechecking or backchecking. You look at the shot total, and we were very lucky to escape with the score as it was.”
Tonight’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and can be seen on the MSG Network.