Game Preview | 5 things to know ahead of Sabres at Ducks

The Buffalo Sabres' road trip continues tonight when they take on the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.
It's a 10 p.m. faceoff on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage starting at 9:30 on MSG.
Stay tuned for lineup news and other updates from Sabres.com's Jourdon LaBarber later this afternoon.
Here are five things to know ahead of the game.

1. Yesterday's practice

Following their 5-2 loss to Los Angeles on Monday, the Sabres held another high-pace practice on Tuesday.
From the Practice Report:
"Obviously, it's not the best way to start coming off the break, but there's still a lot of games left - 30 games left," Alex Tuch said.
"We have to take it day by day, a game at a time, and have fun with it, honestly. I know it's a lot of cliches, but you know what, you've got to simplify it at times. That's what our team needs to do, is simplify it and have some fun out there."
Coach Don Granato also tweaked the line combinations again after really shuffling the deck against Los Angeles.
At practice, Tage Thompson was back between Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch. Dylan Cozens centered a line with JJ Peterka and Victor Olofsson. Peyton Krebs was flanked by Casey Mittelstadt and Jack Quinn, and Tyson Jost was the pivot between Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo.
Read more here.

2. Head-to-head stats

This is the second and final meeting between the Sabres and Ducks this season. Buffalo defeated Anaheim 6-3 in Buffalo back on January 21.

A win in tonight's game would give Buffalo consecutive wins against the Ducks for the first time since the team earned two wins in a row from October 21 to December 22, 2018.
Buffalo is 6-3-1 in its last 10 games against the Ducks and 5-5-0 on the road.
The Sabres are 4-2-0 on the road against Pacific Division opponents this season. The last season Buffalo won at least five road games against Pacific teams was 2017-18, when the team went 5-2-1 in such contests.

3. Sabres to watch

Olofsson has tallied 12 points (8+4) in his last 13 games. With a point in tonight's game, Olofsson would earn his second point streak of three or more games this season (four games, Jan. 17 to 23).
In four career games against the Ducks, Olofsson has recorded five points (3+2).
In his last two games, Mittelstadt has registered three points (1+2) and a point in tonight's game would give him his second three-game point streak of 2022-23.
Rasmus Dahlin has recorded 39 points (7+32) in his last 37 games, including eight points (1+7) in his last nine games.
Tuch has notched 10 points (4+6) in his last 11 games while Thompson has recorded 18 points (8+10) in his last 17 games.
In his last 31 games, Skinner has notched 36 points (15+21). He has 12 points (7+5) in his last twelve games against Anaheim.

4. The latest in Anaheim

The Ducks last played on Sunday where they endured a 7-2 road loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Anaheim is now 5-4-1 over its last 10 games. With 40 points, the Ducks are in 15th in the Western Conference, ahead of only Chicago.
Trevor Zegras leads the club with 45 points (19+26). Troy Terry has 42 points and a team-high 29 assists.
John Gibson has started 37 games, and is 10-22-5 with a 4.05 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage.

5. The playoff chase

Buffalo is 0-3-1 over its last four games and is trying to keep pace in the Wild Card race. They're currently six points behind Washington (62 points through 56 games) for the final playoff seed with four games in hand.
The Islanders and Panthers are both ahead of Buffalo at the moment. The Sabres and Red Wings both have 56 points through 52 games.
The Capitals, Panthers and Islanders all fell last night, although New York picked up a point in their shootout loss to Ottawa.