Buffalo @ Colorado preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 11, 2018 ) Colorado 6, Buffalo 1

The Colorado Avalanche will be without their captain for what looks like the rest of the regular season as they begin a four-game homestand Saturday afternoon versus the Buffalo Sabres. Gabe Landeskog is expected to miss 4-to-6 weeks with an upper-body injury sustained after colliding with Stars goaltender Ben Bishop midway through the third period of Thursday's 4-0 loss in Dallas.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar called it a "huge loss" as Landeskog has already set career highs with 33 goals and 69 points. The Avalanche, who will face three teams well out of playoff position during the homestand, are four points behind Minnesota for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 14 games remaining. Buffalo has lost three straight, five of its last six and is 2-7-2 in its last 11 games after Thursday's 5-4 shootout loss at Chicago, and has been reduced to playing the role of spoiler. "It's disappointing," Sabres coach Phil Housley told reporters. "These guys are working hard. When they're not getting rewarded, that's the difficult thing. That's the mental thing we're facing right now. We're going to have to just keep digging in."
TV: 3 p.m. ET, MSG Buffalo, Altitude (Colorado)

ABOUT THE SABRES (30-28-9): Jack Eichel (25 goals, team-high 72 points) was kept off the scoresheet Thursday after scoring six goals in his previous five games. Defenseman Brandon Montour scored Thursday, giving him two goals in five games since being acquired from Anaheim with his plus-1 rating during that span improving his season number to minus-15. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (league-worst minus-33) had an even rating versus Chicago after he was minus-11 in the previous five contests.

ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (29-27-12): Rantanen (team-high 85 points) was a minus-2 on Thursday - the first time in 10 games he had a minus rating - and has only one multi-point contest in his last 20 games after doing so 22 times in his first 48 contests. Nathan MacKinnon (club-most 34 goals, 84 points) was minus-2 on Thursday - also for the first time in 10 games - and is on pace to exceed his career-high totals of 39 goals and 97 points set last season. Landeskog (33 goals, 69 points) hasn't scored in six games and managed only four in 18 contests since the calendar flipped to February.

OVERTIME

1. Colorado's Nikita Zadorov (team-best plus-13 among defensemen) missed Thursday's game with an upper-body injury.

2. Buffalo has allowed a power-play goal in only two of its last 13 games, killing of 23-of-26 penalties during that span.

3. The Avalanche prevailed in the first of two meetings this season 6-1 on Oct. 11 behind two goals from MacKinnon and three assists by Rantanen.

PREDICTION: Avalanche 3, Sabres 2