Sabres at Sharks
The San Jose Sharks still sport a sub-.500 record at home, but they eagerly are looking forward to returning to the SAP Center for a matchup against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. The Sharks have played nine of their 11 games since the All-Star break away from home and are coming off a 3-1-1 road trip that concluded with a 4-3 shootout loss at Colorado.
"It's just good to be going home," San Jose forward Joel Ward said. "This whole month has been a complete write-off. I don't even know what my house looks like anymore, to be honest." While the Sharks are 11-12-3 overall at SAP Center, they enter the matchup against the Sabres riding a nine-game point streak at home (6-0-3). Buffalo opened a rugged road trip against the top three teams in the Pacific Division with a 1-0 loss at Anaheim and now must head up and down the coast for a back-to-back versus San Jose and Los Angeles. Losers of seven of their last 10 (3-4-3), the Sabres dropped a 2-1 overtime decision at home to the Sharks in mid-November.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, MSG (Buffalo), CSN California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE SABRES (24-30-7): Already among the league's worst offensive clubs, Buffalo got a taste of what life will be like without injured All-Star center Ryan O'Reilly in the 1-0 setback against the red-hot Ducks. "I'm not going to be satisfied with being stride for stride with a good hockey team," coach Dan Bylsma said. "We had every opportunity to get a few goals and win the hockey game, and we come up short." Rookie Jack Eichel, the team's second-leading scorer, has been limited to one goal over his last 11 games.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (32-21-6): Acquired in a trade with Toronto, Nick Spaling and defenseman Roman Polak made their debuts for San Jose at Colorado, with the former netting a goal to give him tallies in back-to-back games after failing to score in his first 34 contests this season. Spaling started out on the fourth line but was elevated to the second unit alongside Ward and Patrick Marleau. "We were looking for some spark," coach Peter DeBoer said. "So we decided to shuffle the deck a little bit, and I thought (Spaling) gave us some good energy, some good legs. He's an easy guy to play with."
OVERTIME
1. Sharks C Joe Thornton has points in nine of his last 10 games, notching five goals and 10 assists in that span.
2. Buffalo's power play certainly felt the absence of O'Reilly, failing on all four chances against Anaheim.
3. San Jose has lost four straight home meetings with the Sabres and had dropped eight in a row in the series prior to the win at Buffalo on Nov. 14.