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NHL on NBCSN doubleheader: Sabres vs. Flyers; Ducks vs. Sharks

Buffalo Sabres v Philadelphia Flyers

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 27: Michael Raffl #12 of the Philadelphia Flyers looks to pass as Josh Gorges #4 of the Buffalo Sabres defends in the second period on October 27, 2015 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

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NBCSN has a doubleheader tonight and it begins at 7:30 p.m. ET when the Philadelphia Flyers host the Buffalo Sabres. Following that game, the Anaheim Ducks will take on the Sharks in San Jose at 10:00 p.m. ET. To watch the early game online, click here. To watch the late game online, click here.

The Flyers will be playing their second game in two nights, as they dropped a 3-1 decision in Montreal last night.

Philadelphia had some good scoring opportunities, but they were held to one goal mainly because Canadiens goalie Carey Price put together a strong performance.

“We definitely wanted to come in here and get two points and it’s disappointing with the loss,” Steve Mason said, per CSN Philly. “Nice thing is, we can get right back at it tomorrow [against Buffalo].

“It was a close game overall and both teams had chances to go ahead. They capitalized on a couple bounces there and that’s the ebbs and flows of the game. They found a way to win and we didn’t.”

After opening the season with a 1-1-1 record, the Flyers managed to string together back-to-back wins before Monday’s loss.

The Sabres will be playing their fourth and final game of a road trip that saw them win big in Edmonton, lose in overtime to Calgary and lose a close one to Vancouver.

Expect them to make some small changes ahead of tonight’s tilt in Philly.

In an attempt to get Sam Reinhart going, the Sabres will move him back to center where he’ll play with Tyler Ennis and Zemgus Girgensons.

With Jack Eichel and Evander Kane still out, Matt Moulson will jump onto the top line with Ryan O’Reilly and Kyle Okposo.

“We’ve got six goals in one game,” head coach Bylsma said, per the Buffalo News. “You subtract that, we’ve got four in the other three games. We need to get more goals. We need to get more goals throughout.”

In the late game...

After winning their first two games of the season, the Sharks have been slumping of late. It’s still too early to say that they’re suffering from a Stanley Cup Final “hangover” though.

San Jose enters tonight’s contest having lost three of their last four contests.

This will be their first game back home after their five-game road trip that saw them travel to play the Blue Jackets, Rangers, Islanders, Penguins and Red Wings.

The team’s power play has been a big problem so far this season. They’ve converted on just 3 of 20 attempts on the man-advantage and as CSN Bay Area points out, just one of those goals came on a five-on-four power play.

“We’re not shooting the puck enough, that’s the big thing,” Logan Couture said, per CSN Bay Area. “We’ve got to shoot the puck, get traffic. We always have a guy in front of the net and we’ve been getting away from that.”

When San Jose hit the ice on Monday, they had completely different lines (the top power play unit stayed the same).

Mikkel Boedker was on a line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski, while Couture practiced between Joonas Donskoi and Joel Ward. Tomas Hertl was with Patrick Marleau and Matt Nieto on the third line.

Only one point separates the Sharks (3-3-0) and Ducks (2-3-1) through six games, but things are a little more positive in Anaheim right now.

They’re coming off back-to-back wins over Philadelphia and Vancouver, and they believe that they’ve turned the corner.

“I think we’re at a point where we’ve built our game enough where we should feel confident playing a team like San Jose,” forward Andrew Cogilano said, per the OC Register. “They’re good. They’re going to make it very hard on us and I think it’s going to show how prepared we are. How far we’ve come from maybe the first couple of games of the season. And if our game is here to stay.”