The Buffalo Sabres and the Carolina Hurricanes meet in NHL action from the PNC Arena on Friday night.
The Buffalo Sabres will look to extend their current three-game win streak after a 6-3 win over Pittsburgh last time out. Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson each have 14 points with Dahlin logging a team-high 8 assists as well as 6 goals while Thompson’s points are split between 7 goals and 7 assists. Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner each have 10 points with Tuch logging 7 goals while Skinner has 8 assists. Victor Olofsson has a team-high 8 goals as well this season. Eric Comrie’s gone 4-3 with a 3.29 GAA and an .898 save percentage while Craig Anderson’s 3-0 with a 1.66 GAA and a .946 save percentage so far in goal for Buffalo this season.
The Carolina Hurricanes will hope to keep the puck rolling here after their 4-3 shootout win over Tampa Bay on Thursday. Martin Necas has a team-high 14 points with 6 goals and a team-high 8 assists while Sebastian Aho also has 7 assists along with 4 goals as part of his 11 points. Andrei Svechnikov also has 11 points with a team-high 8 goals this season. Frederik Andersen has gone 5-2 with a 2.64 GAA and an .894 save percentage while Antti Raanta is 2-0-1 with a 2.23 GAA and a .913 save percentage in goal for Carolina so far this season.
Buffalo is 12-4 in their last 16 games overall and 39-96 in their last 135 road games while the over is 17-5 in their last 22 games against the Metropolitan division. Carolina is 38-14 in their last 52 home games and 33-16 in their last 49 games played on no rest while the under is 11-5-1 in their last 17 games overall.
I get the reasoning for backing either side in this game, but I like the Sabres in this one. Carolina was always going to be favored at home and they’ve had success on the second half of the back-to-back, but Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay was not easy as the ‘Canes needed a shootout to win that game and now have to travel home to take on a Sabres team that likes to push the pace and put teams on their heels. I think there’s value with Buffalo here so give me the Sabres and the plus money.