Sabres at Blues
THE STORY: The Buffalo Sabres picked a bad week to end a record losing streak. Mired in a four-game skid and having lost a franchise-worst 11 straight (all in regulation) away from home, the Sabres now must tackle the league's best home team when they visit the surging St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. The Blues have an NHL-high 20 home wins and represent the fifth stop of a brutal seven-game road trip that bookends the All-Star break for the reeling Sabres, who have not won away from home since Dec. 3 in Nashville. The schedule isn't helping: In a six-day stretch this week, Buffalo is facing four opponents with a combined 72 home victories. That already includes lopsided losses at Chicago and Detroit, which trail only St. Louis for the most home wins in the league. The Blues are riding a three-game winning streak and have gone 7-0-1 this month. Thursday’s 1-0 shutout of Edmonton extended the team’s home points streak to a franchise-record 14 games (12-0-2).
TV: 8 p.m. ET, MSG, FSMW
ABOUT THE SABRES (19-23-5): Buffalo’s malaise continued in a 4-1 loss at Winnipeg on Thursday night. It was the seventh loss in eight games for the Sabres, who have been outscored 19-5 during the four-game skid and have yielded four power-play goals in the last two games. Compounding matters are injuries. RW Patrick Kaleta injured his foot blocking a shot Thursday and is not expected to play Saturday. Also, C Paul Gaustad sat out the Winnipeg game with an upper-body injury.
ABOUT THE BLUES (28-12-6): G Jaroslav Halak continues his amazing turnaround, posting back-to-back 1-0 shutouts in his last two starts and extending his scoreless streak to 148 minutes, 25 seconds. He has three shutouts in his last four outings and has not lost in regulation (10-0-3) since a 3-2 home loss to Los Angeles on Nov. 22. Halak opened the season with six losses in his first seven starts. D Alex Pietrangelo scored the lone goal Thursday to extend his career-high points streak to eight games.
OVERTIME:
1. The Blues haven’t allowed a third-period goal in 10 games, a franchise record. Montreal holds the league mark at 13 games in 1928-29.
2. Buffalo has just two victories in its last 13 meetings with the Blues, although it won in its last visit to St. Louis in December 2009.
3. Blues minority owner Tom Stillman reportedly signed a purchase agreement Friday to buy the team for $130-135 million.