Philadelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres

·Wed Oct 21·7:30 PM ET·TNT,truTV·Buffalo, NY

By JR·2 min read

Flyers(1-6-3)

Sabres(4-3-2)

Wednesday 10/217:30 PM

TLDR: Philadelphia needed 10 games to find a win, and now gets a Sabres team playing without its captain and most of its depth on defense. Neither club is where it wanted to be in October, and Wednesday, October 21 at KeyBank Center gives one of them a chance to start fixing that.

WED 10/21, WED OCT 21, 7:30 PM TNT

Flyers

(1-6-3)

WLLLL

Sabres

(4-3-2)

LWLWL

A struggling Flyers team that just got its first win of the season visits a Sabres club that scores enough but is missing Rasmus Dahlin and 3 other defensemen. Philadelphia plays Colorado first, so its form could look different by Wednesday. The game comes down to whether the Flyers' thin, injury-hit forward group can take advantage of Buffalo's patched-up blue line.

Philadelphia Flyers

Michkov and Martone drove the first win
Ristolainen reportedly close to returning on defense
Facing a Buffalo blue line missing 4 defensemen
Konecny and Tippett both out on the right side
1 goal in 3 of 4 losses before Ottawa
York still out, plays Colorado first

Buffalo Sabres

3+ goals in 4 straight as of Saturday
3 days off at home before puck drop
Came back from 2 down in Toronto
Dahlin, Grzelcyk, Timmins, Rathbone all out on D
Allowed 4 goals in 4 of last 5
Lyon set back, no return timeline

Start with the Flyers, because their October has been rough. They lost 7 straight to open the season, a franchise record. Fans at home chanted "Fire Tocchet" after the Carolina loss, and the team got booed off the ice. The front office has reportedly stood behind Rick Tocchet anyway. The win finally came against Ottawa, 3-1, with Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov each picking up a goal and an assist. Tocchet gave the game puck to radio voice Jason Myrtetus, who is fighting Stage 4 cancer. It was a good night for a team that badly needed one, but it was 1 win.

Philadelphia also has to play the Colorado Avalanche at home before this one, and that game will tell us more than anything we can see today. If they lose it, they head to Buffalo as the same team that couldn't score for 2 weeks. If they win, it's a real run. Either way the lineup they bring will still be missing Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett on the right side, plus Cam York on the back end. That puts a lot of the scoring load on Michkov and Martone. Rasmus Ristolainen was reported close to returning before the Detroit game, so he's the name to watch.

Buffalo's issue is on defense. Captain Rasmus Dahlin went down in the 5-3 win over Florida, hurt following through on a shot early in the second period. He stayed home for the 3-game road trip to Montreal, Toronto and back to Montreal to get treatment. The Sabres went 1-2 on that trip. The win came in Toronto, where Owen Power scored in overtime to finish a rally from 2 goals down in the third. The two losses were both 4-3 in Montreal.

That injury list explains a lot. Dahlin, Matt Grzelcyk, Conor Timmins and Jack Rathbone are all defensemen, and all 4 are out. Grzelcyk's lower-body flare-up was supposed to cost "a few days," per Lindy Ruff. To patch the hole, the Sabres traded Ryan Johnson to Pittsburgh for Caleb Jones, a 29-year-old with 255 NHL games who opened the year in the minors after clearing waivers, and Daniel Laatsch. Alex Lyon is also out in goal after a setback with no timeline. Buffalo has given up 4 goals in 4 of its last 5, and you can see why on paper.

So it's a team that can't score against a team that can't keep the puck out. The Sabres have scored 3 or more in 4 straight as of Saturday, and they'll have had 3 days off at home by puck drop. The Flyers scored 1 goal in 3 of their 4 losses before the Ottawa game. Something has to give at 7:30 PM ET on Wednesday. Buffalo's forwards should get the better of it unless the patched-up defense hands Michkov and Martone the chances Philadelphia hasn't been creating.

Philadelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres

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