@ DET (Dec 23, 2014)@ OTT (Dec 29, 2014) ›

December 27, 2014

First Niagara Center | Buffalo

NYI 34 BUF

FINAL / SO

Head-to-Head vs NYI all-time
1ST2ND3RDOTSOT
NYI120003
BUF003014
Shots on goal NYI 36, BUF 26W J. EnrothL K. Poulin
Summary

NYI had more shot attempts in all situations, but Buffalo won 4-3 in a shootout.

IN NET
Buffalo J. Enroth .917
NYI K. Poulin .885
POWER PLAY
Buffalo 0 of 3
NYI 0 of 2
TURNING POINT
C. Stewart goal (P3 11:51), Sabres win chance rises from 9% to 45%
WIN DNA
2 of 4 winning traits
SHIFTS
Buffalo sent skaters out on short rest 48 times (typical 22)
Game Leaders
N. Deslauriers
2 (1G-1A)
POINTS
N. Deslauriers
1.4
GAME SCORE
D. Stafford
20:04
TOI (F)
N. Zadorov
26:26
TOI (D)
J. Enroth
.917 (33/36)
SAVE %

Stats by Period

All situations, by period.

BUFNYI

Shots on goal are counted from the play-by-play, which on a few games sits one shot off the box score line in the header and Team Stats.

Additional per-period stats
Each cell is BUF-NYI.
 1ST2ND3RDOTTotal
Faceoffs Won14-1011-613-63-141-23
Hits9-911-57-21-228-18
Takeaways0-11-03-21-05-3
Giveaways0-41-14-00-05-5
PDO (5v5): BUF 0.998NYI 1.002. Shooting % plus save %. About 1.000 is neutral.

Game Flow

Running shot attempts for and against, all situations. Shading shows who led.

Tied for only 18 minutes, too few for a score-tied view.

OT 4:59
+23+120-12-23shot attemptsBUFNYI

Dots are goals, navy for Buffalo.

How this is measured

Score-adjusted weights each attempt by how often teams take one in that score state, home or away, at that point of the game, league-wide (2016-17 to 2025-26): the share as if the game were tied at a neutral site. Score-tied counts only attempts while tied, and needs 15 tied minutes and 30 attempts.

Win Probability

Buffalo's chance of winning, from the score, the time left and the strength state.

Opened at 40%.

OT 5:00
100%75%50%25%0%Buffalo win chanceBUFNYI
BIGGEST SWINGS
  1. P3 11:51C. Stewart (5) 9% to 45%+36
  2. P1 04:33N. Leddy (6) 40% to 23%-17
  3. P2 11:56J. Tavares (14) 19% to 6%-13
  4. P3 10:01Z. Girgensons (10), shorthanded 1% to 9%+8

Dots are goals, diamonds penalties, squares a goalie pull; navy for Buffalo.

How this is measured

Each team is expected to score at the league rate for the season, tilted for home ice and scaled for the strength state. The chance Buffalo ends regulation ahead follows from the score and the time left, with a tie going to 3-on-3 overtime and a shootout. The opening value comes from both teams' goals for and against to that date, regressed toward the league average early in a season, plus home ice.

Shot Map

Every shot attempt, to scale.

Replay
OT 4:59
Shot on goal (size = xG)GoalMissed shot×Blocked shot

Win DNA

2 of 4 winning traits showed up tonight. Win rates are over the full 2014–15 regular season (82 games).

Wins (23)Losses (59, 8 in overtime or a shootout)This game
3+ scorersD combined 3+ ptsScored firstDepth goal50%100%
Yes
3+ different scorers
Sabres win 64% when yes, 15% when no
No
Defensemen combined for 3+ points
too few games to split
No
Scored first
Sabres win 50% when yes, 11% when no
Yes
Depth forward scored
Sabres win 52% when yes, 19% when no

Shift Rhythm

Buffalo sent skaters back out on short rest 48 times, well above the typical 22 a game.

N. Zadorov went back out on short rest 11 times, once after only 25 seconds on the bench. In a typical game, the busiest skater does it about 4 times.

BUFNYITypical game, 2025–26
Pinned time (5v5)0:570:070:53
Shot attempts against while pinned101
Short-rest shifts48722

When Buffalo was pinned

PeriodClockPinnedSkaters (unbroken play)Attempts againstGA
P110:07 to 10:100:0300
P119:43 to 20:000:1710
P28:43 to 9:090:2600
P219:35 to 19:360:0100
P31:26 to 1:300:0400

When New York was pinned

PeriodClockPinnedSkaters (unbroken play)Attempts againstGA
P110:07 to 10:080:0100
P27:32 to 7:380:06
A. Lee 1:06
00
How this is measured

Pinned. A team is pinned when 3 or more of its skaters on the ice are past a minute of unbroken play, at 5v5. A hemmed-in shift is an even-strength shift in which the unit was on for more than 1:00 without a whistle to change on, and stayed at even strength for most of it. A stoppage inside a shift starts the clock over, however it began: what counts is the run of play they could not get off the ice for. Only the time past the minute counts: the first minute of those shifts plays like any other stretch of the game, while past it the play tilts hard toward the end the pinned team is defending (in 2025–26, a pinned team took 24% of the shot attempts; pinned time was 1.9% of all 5v5 play). Pinned time is seconds on the clock, not each skater's seconds added up.

Short rest. An even-strength shift a skater started after less than 45 seconds on the bench, same period only (an intermission is a full rest).

Typical game. The middle value across Buffalo games in the 2025–26 regular season, counting both teams (164 team totals), so it stands in for a league-average game. This season has no measured row yet, so 2025–26 stands in. A sentence at the top only appears when a number is among the highest fifth of those, or when a goal went in while a team was pinned.

Shots at an empty net are left out of every row. None of this says why a goal went in: a unit that cannot change is pinned and tiring at the same time, so these rows describe when the danger came, not what caused it.

Shift by shift

Shift length, in order, for one Buffalo skater this game.

39 shifts, averaging 0:41. 1 hemmed-in, 10 after a short rest, never pinned.

Replay
Shift 39
Hemmed-in shiftShort rest before itGoal forGoal againstPenalty takenPower playPenalty killPeriod average and middle half of shifts (even strength)
P1avg 0:42P2avg 0:35P3avg 0:36OTavg 0:450:000:301:001:301510152025303539Shift Number

Period averages are even strength only. Typical in 2025–26: 0:45, 0:50 (the long change), 0:47.

Line Combinations

Lines and pairs at 5v5, and how they did together.

What do TOI, CF, xG% etc. mean?
GP
Games in which this exact line/pair shared the ice together at 5v5.
TOI
Time on ice together at 5v5, meaning the whole line/pair on the ice at once, not any one player's own total. Only the seconds that exact pair or trio was the unit count, which is why a pair's TOI and xG% here differ slightly from the WOWY table, where together counts every 5v5 second the two share, whoever else is on the ice.
xGF / xGA
Expected goals for/against while this combo was on the ice, from this site's own xG model.
xG%
Share of on-ice expected goals this combo earned: xGF / (xGF + xGA). The single best read on who controlled play.
GF / GA
Actual goals for/against while this combo was on the ice together.
CF / CA (Corsi For / Against, Shot Attempts)
"Corsi" is just the hockey-analytics name for total shot attempts: shots on goal, missed shots, and blocked shots combined, a volume proxy for who had the puck more. CF is this combo's own attempts, CA is the opponent's.
CF%
Share of on-ice shot attempts (Corsi) this combo earned: CF / (CF + CA).
CF% Rel
This combo's CF% minus the team's own CF% in the minutes this exact combo was NOT on the ice. Positive means the combo lifted the team's play; negative means it dragged it down.
xGF% Rel
This combo's xG% minus the team's own xG% in the minutes this exact combo was NOT on the ice. Positive means the combo lifted the team's expected-goals share; negative means it dragged it down.
FF / FA
Unblocked shot attempts (also called Fenwick): shots on goal plus misses, excluding blocks. One layer closer to real scoring chances than CF/CA.
SF / SA
Shots on goal for/against while this combo was on the ice together.
Minimum Ice Time
Drag the slider on each table down to see combos with less shared ice time. Their percentages get noisier the lower you go, since a combo that barely played together can swing to 100% or 0% off a single shot.
STRENGTH
Forward Lines
LineGPTOIGFGACFCACF%CF% RelFFFASFSA
Stafford–Deslauriers–Flynn112:051151033.3%-10.6%5846
Moulson–Ennis–Girgensons110:050261037.5%-6.0%4837
Stewart–Hodgson–Grigorenko18:18007846.7%4.3%4624
McCormick–Kaleta–Larsson17:580010566.7%26.4%4342
Pageof 1
Defense Pairs
LineGPTOIGFGACFCACF%CF% RelFFFASFSA
Meszaros–Weber19:28004736.4%-7.0%2424
Meszaros–Zadorov17:210041225.0%-19.9%3735
Gorges–Benoit16:30117558.3%16.8%3423
Gorges–Ristolainen15:58004266.7%24.8%4241
Benoit–Zadorov15:52015645.5%2.8%3524
Pageof 1

Three Stars

1Z. GirgensonsBUF | C1G 0A 1P
2N. DeslauriersBUF | LW1G 1A 2P
3J. EnrothBUF | G2.77 GAA, .917 SV%

Box Score

ON-ICE RATES
Player
G
A
P
+/-
PIM
SOG
iGAx
On-Ice
Game Score
TOI
On-Ice TOIxGF%xGF% RelCF%CF% RelFF%GF%PDOxGSGS
#21 D. Stafford (RW)
0
2
2
+1
2
2
14:2533.3%-13.8%38.1%66.7%1.186
1.3
20:04
#44 N. Deslauriers (LW)
1
1
2
+1
0
5
14:5428.6%-19.6%29.4%50.0%1.139
1.4
17:51
#4 J. Gorges (D)
0
2
2
0
0
0
16:0253.8%+16.6%38.9%33.3%0.881
1.3
26:21
#28 Z. Girgensons (C)
1
0
1
-1
2
4
11:4344.4%+2.1%42.9%0.0%0.714
0.7
18:58
#36 P. Kaleta (RW)
0
1
1
+1
2
1
8:1857.9%+20.0%45.5%100.0%1.200
0.9
11:07
#80 C. Stewart (RW)
1
0
1
+1
2
2
9:4340.9%-2.7%33.3%100.0%1.333
0.7
14:51
#8 C. McCormick (C)
0
0
0
0
0
2
9:2052.6%+13.0%40.0%1.000
0.3
12:54
#19 C. Hodgson (C)
0
0
0
0
0
1
9:0238.9%-5.2%33.3%1.000
-0.1
12:41
#22 J. Larsson (LW)
0
0
0
0
0
1
8:4162.5%+24.8%57.1%1.000
0.5
9:23
#25 M. Grigorenko (C)
0
0
0
0
0
1
9:3044.4%+2.1%41.7%1.000
0.0
12:36
#26 M. Moulson (LW)
0
0
0
-2
0
2
11:1047.4%+6.0%46.7%0.0%0.714
-0.2
16:34
#63 T. Ennis (RW)
0
0
0
-2
0
1
12:0938.9%-5.2%38.5%0.0%0.714
-0.3
18:34
#65 B. Flynn (C)
0
0
0
0
0
1
13:4431.6%-15.0%33.3%50.0%1.107
-0.2
18:22
#6 M. Weber (D)
0
0
0
0
0
0
15:2440.0%-4.2%42.1%50.0%1.067
-0.2
21:43
#41 A. Meszaros (D)
0
0
0
+1
0
1
19:1230.3%-22.0%25.0%1.000
-0.4
24:07
#51 N. Zadorov (D)
0
0
0
0
0
0
17:3736.1%-12.7%34.6%50.0%1.071
-0.5
26:26
#55 R. Ristolainen (D)
0
0
0
0
0
1
6:0875.0%+35.9%75.0%1.000
0.3
8:14
#61 A. Benoit (D)
0
0
0
-1
0
1
14:0350.0%+10.8%41.2%33.3%0.914
0.1
21:14
Total
3
6
9
8
26
5.6

On-ice rates are 5-on-5. Rel compares to the team with that skater off the ice.

GoalieSAGAxGASV%GSAxGSTOIDec
#1 J. Enroth363.9171.165:00W

Team Stats

NYIBUF
36Shots on Goal26
12.0%Shooting % (5v5)11.8%
.882Save % (5v5).880
1.002PDO (5v5)0.998
23 (36%)Faceoffs Won41 (64%)
2Power Play Chances3
0%PP%0%
100%PK%100%
0PPG0
10Penalty Minutes8
18Hits28
14Blocked Shots20
5Giveaways5
3Takeaways5

Full Game Log

1ST
00:00Period start
04:33GOAL (NYI): Nick Leddy (6), assists: Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey
20:00Period end
2ND
00:00Period start
11:56GOAL (NYI): John Tavares (14), unassisted
15:05GOAL (NYI): John Tavares (15), assists: Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo
20:00Period end
3RD
00:00Period start
06:39GOAL (BUF): Nicolas Deslauriers (4), assists: Drew Stafford, Josh Gorges
10:01GOAL (BUF): Zemgus Girgensons (10), assists: Nicolas Deslauriers, Josh Gorges(SH)
11:51GOAL (BUF): Chris Stewart (5), assists: Drew Stafford, Patrick Kaleta
20:00Period end
OT
00:00Period start
05:00Period end
SO
00:00Period start
00:00GOAL (BUF): Tyler Ennis, unassisted(SO)
00:00Shootout complete
00:00Shootout complete
00:00Period end
00:00Game end
@ DET (Dec 23, 2014)@ OTT (Dec 29, 2014) ›