On Thursday, the Buffalo Sabres won their first game in what felt like forever. In reality, it was only a week, but losing streaks make time go by oh so slowly. Tonight, the Sabres look for that elusive beast known as a winning streak as they travel to Strong Long Island to take on the team that just traded for the ghost of Tim Thomas.
Game #12
Buffalo Sabres (4-6-1) at New York Islanders (4-5-1)
Puck Drop – 7:00pm – Nassau Coliseum – Uniondale, NY
TV – MSG | Radio – WGR 550-AM
Islanders Blog – Lighthouse Hockey (Please play nice if you’re going to visit.)
Story
The big Sabres news coming out of this morning’s practice is that Tyler Myers will be a healthy scratch. Myers has struggled mightily in this young season, and has a league worst -9 rating to go along with just one point. This is his second benching in the past two seasons, and hopefully he responds to this one the way he did last season, when a benching helped turned his game around.
While Myers will sit, the Sabres will get two of their regulars back – Andrej Sekera and Patrick Kaleta will suit up for the blue and gold tonight. Cody McCormick and Matt Ellis will join Myers in the owner’s box. Sadly, Sabres fans hoping to see the “Legendary” Joe Finley play for the Isles tonight will be disappointed, as he will sit, though we will get to see Brad Boyes play top line minutes for the Isles and undoubtedly he will score a hit trick.
The Islanders are coming into this game riding a three game losing streak that has featured a terrible power play. They could see the season debuts of forward Josh Bailey and free agent defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky.
Buffalo Lines
Vanek – Hodgson – Pominville
Foligno – Ennis – Stafford
Ott – Grigorenko – Hecht
Scott – Gerbe – Kaleta
Sekera – Leopold
Ehrhoff – Sulzer
Brennan – Weber
Goal: Ryan Miller
Scratches/Injuries: Myers, McCormick, Ellis, Regehr, Leino
NY Islanders Lines*
Moulson – Tavares – Boyes
Grabner – Nielsen – Okposo
Ullstrom – Aucoin – McDonald
Boutlon – Reasoner – Martin
Strait – Streit (well isn’t that confusing)
MacDonald – Hamonic
Hickey – Visnovsky
Goal: Tim Thomas Evgeni Nabokov
*Our best guess