Sharks at Sabres
The road has been kind to the San Jose Sharks of late and the Pacific Division leaders hope the trend continues as they begin a four-game trek Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres. San Jose is 15-10-1 away from home this season thanks to a surge during which it won five of six and each of the last four.
The Sharks are 8-1-1 in their last 10 overall contests and have been helped by the hot hand of veteran Patrick Marleau, who collected seven goals - including the 500th of his career - and three assists during his six-game point streak. Buffalo looks to extend its home point streak as it improved to 5-0-1 in its last six at KeyBank Center with Saturday's 4-0 triumph over Ottawa. The Sabres were unable to make it two straight Monday as they dropped a 2-1 decision at New Jersey. Kyle Okposo set up the team's goal to end an eight-game assist drought and raise his team-leading point total to 33.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN California (San Jose), MSG (Buffalo)
ABOUT THE SHARKS (33-17-3): Marleau is tied with Lanny McDonald for 44th place on the all-time goals list with 500 and likely will pass Joe Mullen (502), Peter Bondra (503) and Jean Beliveau (507) by season's end. Joe Thornton is on the verge of climbing the NHL's points list as he needs one to snap a tie with Mike Modano (1,374) for 23rd place. The 37-year-old center also is six assists shy of becoming the 13th player in league history to record 1,000 in his career.
ABOUT THE SABRES (21-21-10): Buffalo is hoping Tyler Ennis' offensive struggles are behind him as he halted his seven-game goal-scoring drought Monday to extend his point streak to three games. The 27-year-old left wing, who has been hampered by injuries the last two seasons following back-to-back 20-goal campaigns, doubled his season point total during the run after notching three over his first 18 contests. Defenseman Justin Falk, who signed a one-year, $650,000 contract extension Monday morning, recorded an assist in two straight games to raise his season amount to five - his most since registering a career-high eight in 2011-12 with Minnesota.
OVERTIME
1. The Sharks recalled D Joakim Ryan and RW Marcus Sorensen from their American Hockey League affiliate in San Jose and assigned D Tim Heed and RW Kevin Labanc to the Barracuda.
2. Buffalo C Derek Grant returned to the organization Monday as the 26-year-old - who was claimed off waivers by Nashville on Jan. 11 - was brought back in the same fashion and assigned to Rochester of the AHL.
3. San Jose's Brent Burns is tied for third in the league in scoring with 55 points while fellow D Justin Braun is one shy of 100 for his career.