Red-Hot Aho:With his franchise-record eighth overtime goal on Tuesday, Sebastian Aho now has goals in five consecutive games for Carolina. It is his third career five-game goal streak, becoming just the third player in franchise history to achieve that. He joins Kevin Dineen and Blaine Stoughton, who most recently had his streak in 1991.
Go Fish:Aho also enters tonight's game with 22 points in 14 career games against the Sabres.
'Zilla Is So Back:Earning the win in net last night, Frederik Andersen is now 6-0 since returning from injury. Stopping 17 out of 21, #31 is now 11-3 this season.
Father Finn Goes Back In:Given that Andersen played last night, signs would point to Antti Raanta having the crease for Carolina tonight. "Father Finn" is 9-2-0 in his last 12 games, with his last regulation loss coming back on November 12 to the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche.
Burnzie Is Buzzin':Recording a first period goal last night, defenseman Brent Burns now has points in six consecutive games. His 36 points this season lead all Canes blueliners and rank tied for 11th among all NHL defensemen.
Defense From Offense:No team in the NHL has received more goals from their defense this year than Carolina. With 33 tallies in 49 games, Brady Skjei has produced eight of them in the last 26 outings. No NHL defender has more since December 1.
Scoring While Down A Man:The Canes finished the month of January with seven shorthanded goals, the most by any team in a calendar month since the 2008-09 Atlanta Thrashers. It is just the fifth time in the last 27 seasons that a team has produced seven goals or more while on the penalty kill.
On The Other Side:Buffalo rounds out their pre-All-Star break schedule tonight as well, striving to improve on their recent run of 6-2-2 in their last 10 games. While Tage Thompson continues his remarkable season with 17 points in 15 games during the month of January, perhaps it is more impressive that defenseman Rasmus Dahlin produced the same point total in the same amount of games. As a team they are averaging 3.76 goals per game this year, tops among all NHL clubs. The trade-off though is that they're allowing 3.35 goals per night. Their penalty kill is also just 73.7%, currently sitting 28th.
