The Buffalo Sabres will try to turn their road record around when they visit the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
The Sabres arrive in Winnipeg after a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday in the opener of their season-long six-game road trip that stretches over 12 days. After facing the Jets, the Sabres will continue through Western Canada before wrapping it up in Seattle on Dec. 14.
“It’s a big road trip with a lot of points up for grabs that we need,” forward Tage Thompson said. “This is one we’ve just got to shake off and get ready for the rest of the trip.”
Buffalo dropped to 2-7-2 on the road with the setback to the Flyers. The team appeared to be getting back on track away from home in winning two of its previous three road games (5-4 in overtime at Detroit on Nov. 15; 3-2 in the shootout at Minnesota on Nov. 29) but faltered against Philadelphia.
The Sabres’ typically strong penalty kill gave up two power-play goals in 38 seconds amidst a stretch of four straight goals by the Flyers after the Sabres had taken the lead on a power-play tally of their own.
The loss denied Buffalo of its first three-game winning streak of the season.
“You’re never happy with a loss, obviously, but we’ve got to just keep chugging here,” defenseman Bowen Byram said. “Eventually, we’ve got to find a way to string some wins together. We win two, lose two, win two, lose two. … If we want to stay in the race, we’re going to have to try to string something together.”
The Sabres will be looking to recreate the effort that spurred them to a 5-1 win against the Jets on Monday in Buffalo. They played with pace and looked connected everywhere on the ice, chasing Jets goalie Eric Comrie after the first period and limiting the Jets’ dangerous top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi to four shots on goal. That included Connor scoring the lone tally for Winnipeg, which held a players-only, closed-door meeting immediately after the game.
The Jets followed that with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, dropping them to 1-5-1 in their past seven games. Though they didn’t get the result they wanted against Montreal, they liked the effort they delivered after the loss to Buffalo.
“The compete was there. Obviously it sucks we got beat and didn’t get the win, but that was a better blueprint for how our team has got to play,” Scheifele said. “If we play like that, we’ll get some wins.”
Secondary scoring has been an issue for Winnipeg. The club entered Thursday with 78 goals through 26 games, tied for 20th in the NHL. Scheifele (14), Connor (14) and Vilardi (11) have accounted for exactly half of those. After Vilardi, no other Jets player has more than six.
“It isn’t always necessarily the goals or getting shots. Sometimes it’s just wearing the opposition down and it’s building it up for the next line,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said.
The power play has also been an issue of late, stuck in a 2-for-18 rut, including going 1-for-11 on their just-concluded five-game road trip.
