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Red Wings-Sabres Preview

Oct 13, 2009 - 1:22 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Detroit (2-2-0) at Buffalo (2-0-1), 7:00 p.m. EDT

The Detroit Red Wings have bounced back from their empty season-opening trip to Sweden with a pair of wins at Joe Louis Arena, but they've yet to play a road game on North American soil.

The Buffalo Sabres, however, have rarely failed in making the Red Wings feel at home.

Detroit has won 15 of its last 18 meetings with Buffalo, and it'll look to continue that dominance Tuesday night at HSBC Arena against what's so far been the league's stingiest team.

The Red Wings (2-2-0) began their season in Stockholm against St. Louis, but the defending Western Conference champions couldn't muster a point from either game, blowing two-goal leads in each to lose in regulation.

Detroit trailed in each of its first two home games, but didn't have a problem coming from behind in either. The Red Wings scored twice on the power play in a 3-2 win over Chicago on Thursday, then got two more goals with the man advantage Saturday in a 3-2 victory over Washington.

Coach Mike Babcock's team is 6 for 20 (30.0 percent) on the power play through four games after leading the league (25.5 percent) last season.

"The last game was our best game," Babcock told the Red Wings' official Web site of the win against the Capitals. "It was the first time that we skated like an NHL team since we've been back (from Sweden). We gave up an early goal, yet I didn't think it affected us very much. We just kept playing, which is important."

Detroit learned last week that it would be without Johan Franzen, one of its biggest power-play threats, until February as the right wing recovers from a torn ACL.

Fortunately for the Red Wings, they received some potentially good news Monday. Speedy center Darren Helm, who's never scored a regular-season goal but has six in the playoffs, could make his season debut against the Sabres (2-0-1) after spraining the AC joint in his shoulder during training camp.

"I think I can play. I'm ready," Helm said. "We did some battle drills (Monday) and it's all good. No pain. ... It feels pretty good and hopefully they'll say 'OK'."

The Sabres don't need Detroit to have any more help. The Red Wings are 15-1-1 with a tie in their last 18 games versus Buffalo dating to March 27, 1996, scoring 3.77 goals per meeting.

These Sabres, though, have yielded three total goals in their first three games, easily the fewest in the league. That's made up for the fact that Buffalo has scored the fewest goals (four) in the NHL.

So far, that hasn't been a hindrance. Mike Grier's tally with 3:25 left was all the Sabres needed Saturday night in a 1-0 win at Nashville.

"Mike Grier, you are my hero," said goaltender Ryan Miller, who made 25 saves for his 13th career shutout. "Mike does a lot of things really well on the ice. He kept on telling us to trust the system and that we would get a breakthrough."

Grier, a Detroit native, has three goals in 35 career games against the Red Wings.

While Grier isn't much of a scorer, the same can't be said for Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk, who had his second consecutive 97-point season in 2008-09. Datsyuk has been limited to two assists thus far, but has three goals and four assists in eight career games against the Sabres.

Linemate Henrik Zetterberg, however, hasn't scored a goal in five games versus Buffalo.

Goaltender Chris Osgood has faced the Sabres just once in the past seven years, when he made 32 saves in a 4-1 victory at Buffalo on April 6.