Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, the Buffalo Sabres (2-13-1, five points) and San Jose Sharks (10-1-3, 23 points) faceoff in the first of two meetings this season live from the SAP Center in San Jose. The game can be live streamed here. Buffalo fans can hear all the hard-hitting action on WGR 550 SportsRadio while San Jose fans can do the same on 98.5 K-FOX.
Buffalo enters the game at the bottom of the Atlantic Division with the worst record and least amount of points in the NHL, and is 15 points behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Lightning while San Jose enters in second place in the Pacific Division, two points shy of the first place Anaheim Ducks.
The Sharks are on a two-game losing streak and dropped their first home game of the season Saturday in a shootout. The Sharks welcomed back Dan Boyle, who missed seven games with a concussion, during the loss.
"He's maybe one of the top two or three quarterback defensemen in the league," coach Todd McLellan said via NHL.com. "It's his poise, his experience, his knowledge and reads of what's going on."
The Sabres are off to their worst start in franchise history and know they need to do something to turn around their woes. The team has lost seven of its past eight games and 14 of 16 to start the year. The Sabres latest loss was a 6-3 shelling at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks.
''We're facing a lot of adversity right now,'' Sabres center Cody Hodgson told NHL.com. ''We can say as much as we want, but at the end of the day it's what we do on the ice. Right now it's not good enough.''
Hodgson has 12 points for the snake-bitten Sabres off of five goals and seven assists while new import Matt Moulson paces the team with 13 points off of eight goals and five assists, some of which he put up with the New York Islanders.
Logan Couture has led the way for San Jose by putting up seven goals and nine assists for 16 points while Joe Pavelski has six tallies and 10 helpers for 16 points, Patrick Marleau has lit the lamp eight times while adding seven assists for 15 points and Joe Thornton has one goal and a team-leading 13 assists for 14 points.
The explosive Sharks will most likely be tested by Ryan Miller, who is 1-10-0 through 11 games for the Sabres with a 3.03 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. Buffalo will look to get its offense going most likely against Antti Niemi, who has started 13 of 14 games for the Sharks and is 9-1-3 with a sparkling 1.74 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
The Sharks look to stay red-hot while the point-strapped Sabres enter a tough west coast test when the puck drops at the SAP Center in San Jose tonight.
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