The Buffalo Sabres (4-1) close out the North American portion of their preseason schedule tonight when they face the Washington Capitals (1-3-1) at the Verizon Center. Buffalo will travel to Europe for their next game, as they kick off their overseas trip with their final preseason tune-up on Tuesday (1:30 p.m. EST) against Adler Mannheim (DEL) at SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany. This game will wrap up the team’s preseason schedule.

Lindy Ruff said yesterday that while he originally planned to have Miller play the whole game tonight, he was now going to have him split time with Jhonas Enroth.

Offseason acquisition Christian Ehrhoff currently leads all Sabres in scoring during the preseason. The defenseman has earned points in all three games he has dressed for in the preseason for a total of four (2+2).

Buffalo and Washington have played 27 preseason games all-time… The Sabres are 16-10-1 in preseason contests against the Capitals… In their preseason history, the Sabres are 2-1-0 at Washington and 4-1-1 against the Capitals at home… 18 of the 27 preseason games between the teams have been played at neutral site venues, with the Sabres going 10-8-0 in those games.

The teams’ last preseason meeting took place on Sept. 21, 2009, when the Sabres defeated the Capitals on the road, 2-1, after dropping a 4-3 overtime decision when the teams met in Buffalo four nights prior… This year, the first of four regular season meetings between the Sabres and Capitals will take place on Sat., Nov. 26 in Buffalo.

The Sabres are 138-147-48 all-time in the preseason… Buffalo is 25-11-2 in preseason action since the start of the 2005-06 season.

The Sabres will then begin their regular season schedule as part of the NHL Premiere Series with a game against Anaheim in Helsinki, Finland on Friday, Oct. 7 and another against Los Angeles in Berlin, Germany on Saturday, Oct. 8.

The Sabres' final preseason morning skate in North America is under way, and power-play work is dominating the early part of the session.

The Sabres have two units practicing the power play, and they are:

Jason Pominville-Luke Adam-Thomas Vanek, with Christian Ehrhoff and Marc-Andre Gragnani on the points; and Tyler Ennis-Ville Leino-Drew Stafford, with Tyler Myers and Jordan Leopold.

Jochen Hecht, who has been nursing a head injury for nearly two weeks, is wearing a red, no-contact jersey, but he is working regularly on the penalty-killing units.

---John Vogl