5 THINGS: Flyers @ Sabres

GAME NOTES
Interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (13-19-8) are in New York State on Saturday afternoon to take on Don Granato's Buffalo Sabres (12-21-7). Game time at KeyBank Center is 1:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the first of two in Buffalo. The teams will play a home-and-home set on April 16 (KeyBank Center) and April 17 (Wells Fargo Center).
Saturday's match marks the statistical midpoint of the 2021-22 season for both teams. Philadelphia enters this game having gone 0-7-3 in their last 10 games; the team's second 10-game winless streak of the season. The Sabres have only fared slightly better, going 2-6-2.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game:
1. Opportunity for Allison
Injuries have plagued Flyers power forward prospect Wade Allison since he sophomore season at Western Michigan. This season, Allison missed NHL training camp and the first two-plus months of the 2021-22 regular season due to a right high ankle sprain suffered in the second of two Rookie Games for the Flyers' prospects in September.
Cleared to return in December, Allison was loaned to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms in order to bring his game back up to speed. Unfortunately, in the third period of his third game (Dec. 17 at Hartford), Allison suffered an elbow injury on a hit he attempted along the neutral zone boards near the player benches.
Allison missed another month-plus of action. He returned to the Phantoms on Jan 14 and played in four games. In his first three games, Allison looked rusty and struggled across a gauntlet of three games in three nights. However, he scored goals in back-to-back games.
In his fourth game, Allison looked much more like the high-energy, puck-hounding, hard-shooting winger the Flyers got a glimpse at last season. He also bagged another goal, making it three straight games with a goal.
The Flyers had hoped to give Allison a few additional AHL games to continue rounding back to form. However, when the team learned that Joel Farabee would miss up to three weeks due to an upper-body injury, Allison was recalled on Friday.
In 14 NHL games with the Flyers last season, Allison notched four goals and seven points. He brings a tenacious physical element, a nose for the net and a heavy one-timer. As with Scott Hartnell, Allison has a tendency to fall down on non-contact plays but get right back up again. Also similar to Hartnell, Allison plays with a lot of adrenaline and emotion.
2. The First-Goal Factor
This has been a recurring facet of recent game previews: the Flyers' inability to win games when they have to play from behind. The leaguewide average points percentage after trailing 1-0 is 30.8 percent. The Flyers rank 31st of the league's 32 teams in this category. Philly's 9.1 percent is ahead only of Montreal (7.7 percent).
Even when the Flyers have later pulled even in a game-- or briefly taken a subsequent lead -- the team has been unable to find ways to end up on the winning side. The Flyers are 2-17-3 in games where they give up the first goal. Philly has trailed first in nine of the last 10 games.
The Sabres have fared just about as poorly as the Flyers when they have to play from behind. In the 21 games in which Buffalo has yielded the game's first goal, the Sabres have a 3-15-3.
When scoring the game's first goal, the Flyers are 11-2-5. The Sabres are 9-6-4 in that circumstance; the NHL's 4th lowest points percentage in games when leading first.
3. Inside the Numbers
The underlying numbers for both the Flyers and Sabres tell the tale of why both clubs are mired far below the playoff cutoff line in the Eastern Conference and neither is even on the bubble at this point. Specific to the Flyers' winless month of January to date:
* Both sides of the Flyers' special teams have struggled. The power play comes in at 14.8 percent in January (4-for-27) and has been a negative momentum factor in several of the team's recent one-goal losses. The penalty kill, which had been a team bright spot until the Christmas break, has given seven goals on 22 opportunities (68.2 percent, 27th in the league in January). Meanwhile, Buffalo's PK has struggled even worse: 9 PPGA in 27 opportunities.
* The Flyers have only scored 13 goals at 5-on-5 this month; tied for 22nd league with the Vegas Golden Knights, who have played two fewer games.
* Only the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins have given up more opposing 5-on-5 goals in January than the 23 that Philadelphia has yielded. However, Boston (25 GA at 5-on-5) has played 11 games this month, while the Flyers have played nine.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: Buffalo Sabres
Since making his Sabres debut on Dec. 29, Alex Tuch has recorded eight points (3g.5a) in eight games. That includes three goals, four assists and a plus-four rating in six games played in January. Tuch and Jeff Skinner (5g, 2a) are tied for the team point lead this month.
For the season, young defenseman Rasmus Dahlin leads the Sabres in overall scoring with 26 (7g, 19a) points in 40 games. Dahlin has logged an average of 23:57 of ice time per game.
The Sabres have three players who've tallied double-digit goals this season: Skinner (team-high 14 goals), Tage Thompson (12g, 25 points) and young forward Dylan Cozens (10 goals, 19 points). Thompson has not scored a goal in January (five assists in his last five games) but, dating it back over the last 10 games, has two goals and nine points.
Jack Quinn sustained a lower-body injury in Thursday's game against Dallas and did not practice with the team on Friday. Prior to the injury, Quinn tallied his first NHL goal in the 5-4 home loss against the Stars.
5. Players to Watch: Ristolainen and Dahlin
Saturday's game will be a homecoming of sorts for Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. After eight seasons with the Sabres, he was traded to the Flyers from on July 23, 2021. In return, the Sabres received defenseman Robert Hägg, a 2021 first-round pick (Isak Rosén) and a second-round pick in 2023. Entering this game, Ristolainen has averaged 21:08 TOI and leads the Flyers (by far) with 125 credited hits.
Dahlin, like Ristolainen before him, cracked the Sabres' NHL roster as a teenager and went directly to the team's top pairing. He's had his share of bumps in the road after being touted as a nearly can't miss franchise defenseman as the No. 1 overall selection of the 2018 NHL Draft. Nevertheless, at age 21, has progressed well overall from a rough 2020-21 campaign and has barely scratched the surface of his potential.