Rookie stars Larkin and Eichel face off again Saturday
Dylan Larkin and Jack Eichel are among the NHL's top rookies in points and goals, but neither has been able to register any in two head-to-head meetings.
These budding stars meet for the third time Saturday (12:30 pregame, 1 faceoff on FOX Sports Detroit) when Larkin and the visiting Red Wings take on Eichel and the Sabres in a matchup of teams on three-game losing streaks.
Larkin tops all rookies with 13 goals and Eichel is tied for second with 11, with Larkin third in the league among first-year players with 25 points and Eichel fourth at 23.
Both have failed to produce a point in two matchups. Detroit (18-13-7) won 5-4 in a shootout on Dec. 1 and Buffalo bounced back with a 2-1 victory 13 days later.
The Sabres (15-19-4) have totaled three goals in their three-game slide while the Red Wings have four in theirs.
Buffalo didn't score in a first period in which it held a 17-5 edge in shots Thursday and went on to lose 2-1 at home to the New York Islanders.
"We're not happy with where we are right now I think as a team," Eichel said. "I think we have a lot more to give."
Eichel assisted on Ryan O'Reilly's power-play goal to give him nine points in his last six games.
He's been moved onto a power-play unit with O'Reilly. Buffalo is 1 for 25 with the man advantage in its last eight games.
"We just feed off each other and move the puck, obviously we would have liked to do better in the first period and that comes with practice," Eichel said. "It's nice to get one and hopefully we'll be able to build off that."
The Red Wings are also scuffling on the power play, going 4 for 27 in their last eight games after finishing 0 for 3 in Thursday's 5-2 home defeat to Pittsburgh. Even more disturbing is a penalty kill that has allowed four goals in seven chances in this losing streak.
"I don't think it should just be talk about the power play," coach Jeff Blashill said. "It's specialty teams. We've given up too many goals when we're on the penalty kill. Our specialty teams combined have to be better."
Henrik Zetterberg, who has a team-high 28 points, has also come up empty against Buffalo this season. He pointed to turnovers as a glaring issue and is hoping for better results in that department as Detroit opens a six-game road stretch.
"The good thing is now we go on the road and maybe it's easier to play a little simpler on the road than at home," Zetterberg said. "We've really got to take care of that."
It's not clear if Detroit will start Petr Mrazek or the struggling Jimmy Howard, who has yielded 13 goals in his last four games. Buffalo will turn to Chad Johnson or Linus Ullmark.
Detroit winger Tomas Jurco played just five shifts in the first period Thursday before leaving with an upper-body injury.
Sabres center Tyler Ennis sat out against New York with an upper-body injury suffered Wednesday on a hit by Washington's Alex Ovechkin.
