Sabres at Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are the hottest team in the NHL, with a sizzling power play and consistent offense serving to fuel the club to a season-best eight straight wins. The Flyers look to continue their ascent on Saturday when they host the reeling Buffalo Sabres, who are headed in the other direction with five consecutive losses.
"Season's not over yet, there's a lot of hockey to be played," forward Scott Laughton cautioned after Philadelphia's 4-1 win over Carolina on Thursday. "Can't have a letdown, especially with how tight the division is. We have to continue to look up and not back." Looking up is where one would find the Flyers, who are 8-for-22 on the power play while scoring at least four goals in all eight games of their winning streak to pull into a tie with Washington atop the Metropolitan Division. While Philadelphia sports a sterling 24-5-4 record at home, Buffalo followed up a fruitless four-game trek that dropped it to 10-19-4 on the road with a 4-2 setback to Pittsburgh on Thursday. "It's fighting up a big hill right now, but more than anything, it's our offensive production that's causing us the pain," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said of his club, which has scored just 11 goals during its last six games and gone 0-for-13 on the power play during that stretch.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: MSG-Buffalo, NBCS Philadelphia
ABOUT THE SABRES (29-30-8): Captain Jack Eichel has been saddled with a minus-8 rating while being held without a point in a career-worst six straight games. Linemates Sam Reinhart and rookie Victor Olofsson have failed to record a point in six and seven games, respectively, although the latter scored a goal in Buffalo's 6-1 setback in Philadelphia on Dec. 19. Reinhart was held in check while Eichel sat out that contest with an upper-body injury, bringing a halt to a point streak that fell one game shy of matching the franchise record set by Gilbert Perreault in 1971.
ABOUT THE FLYERS (40-20-7): Laughton has recorded multi-point performances in four of his last six games, during which he has collected three goals and six assists. The 25-year-old isn't the only member of the team clicking on offense, as Nicolas Aube-Kubel is riding a five-game point streak (two goals, three assists) and Jakub Voracek has eight assists to highlight his four-game point streak. Sean Couturier, who set up a pair of goals in the first meeting with Buffalo, has 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) since the start of February.
OVERTIME
1. Buffalo C Dominik Kahun has collected three points (one goal, two assists) in four games since being acquired from Pittsburgh on Feb. 24.
2. Philadelphia G Carter Hart sports a 19-2-2 record with a 1.64 goals-against average and .942 save percentage at home this season.
3. Sabres G Carter Hutton fell to 4-2-0 in six career meetings with the Flyers after yielding all six goals in the last outing.