The Buffalo Sabres and the Colorado Avalanche meet in NHL action from the Ball Arena on Sunday night.
The Buffalo Sabres come into this game on the heels of a 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes in their last game. Tage Thompson leads the Sabres in scoring with 29 points including 14 goals while Rasmus Dahlin also has 28 points with a team-high 21 assists and Jeff Skinner has 27 points with a team-high 16 goals. Kyle Okposo also has 24 points with 8 goals and 16 apples this season. Dustin Tokarski’s gone 4-5-3 with a 3.28 GAA and a .903 save percentage in goal for Buffalo while Ukko-Pekka Luokkonen is 2-5-2 with a 2.74 GAA and a .917 save percentage and Aaron Dell is 1-8-1 with a 4.03 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
The Colorado Avalanche will try to build on a 6-4 win over Chicago in their last game. Nazem Kadri leads the Avs in scoring with 58 points including a team-high 41 assists while Gabriel Landeskog has 44 points and Cale Makar has 43 points with Landeskog logging 18 goals and 26 assists while Makar has 18 goals with 25 apples and Devon Toews has a team-best +33 plus/minus rating. Mikko Rantanen has a team-high 22 goals as well as 51 points of his own and Nathan MacKinnon has 43 points with 9 goals and 34 assists this season. Darcy Kuemper has gone 20-5-1 with a 2.64 GAA and a .913 save percentage this season in goal for Colorado.
Buffalo is 23-60 in their last 83 games overall and 28-83 in their last 111 road games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 games as a road underdog. Colorado is 45-9 in their last 54 home games and 63-22 in their last 85 games overall while the over is 12-4-2 in their last 18 home games.
I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m looking at the over here. I think Buffalo’s in trouble against a tough, tough Colorado scoring unit, but the Avs have also let lesser teams hang around often this season and I think this could be one of those spots where we see more goals than we’d initially expect and for this one to fly over the total.