Buffalo Sabres at Washington Capitals Preview: Sabres Look To Rebound From Back-To-Back Losses
The Sabres look to bounce back in an afternoon tilt with Washington after losing two straight to the Hurricanes. Will Thomas Vanek play today, and will shuffled lines lead to more secondary scoring?
The Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals are each coming into today's afternoon matchup riding losing streaks of various lengths. For the Sabres, it's two games, and Lindy Ruff was not happy about the way his team was playing, as he showed at yesterday's practice. Today we should see some shaken up lines, and as of this writing we're still not sure whether or not Thoma Vanek will be suiting up or sitting.
Game #5 - Buffalo Sabres (2-2-0) at Washington Capitals (0-3-1)
Puck Drop - 3:00pm - Verizon Center - Washington, DC
TV - NHLN, MSG, CSN-DC -- Radio - WGR 550-AM
Capitals Blog - Jaspers' Rink (Please play nice if you're going to visit.)
Story
The Washington Capitals are still looking for their first win of the year, and their first Alexander Ovechkin goal of the year, in fact, Ovie only has but a lone assist thus far. Sabres fans expecting to see playoff hero Brayden Holtby in net for the Caps will instead see Michael Neuvirth, who's coming off two fairly strong games compared to Holtby's 5.04 GAA. The Sabres are hoping that some new lines will lead to secondary scoring, as the bottom nine so far as been amazingly inept at even getting shots on net, let alone getting any past the goalie.
Buffalo Lines*
Vanek - Hodgson - Pominville
Ott - Grigorenko - Stafford
Foligno - Ennis - Gerbe
Scott - Hecht - Kaleta
Myers - Regehr
Ehrhoff - Sulzer
Sekera - Leopold
Goal: Ryan Miller
Scratches: Leino, Weber, Brennan
* Our best guess, as we're not sure at the time of publication if Thomas Vanek will play today.
Washington Lines*
Alex Ovechkin - Jay Beagle - Joey Crabb
Wojtek Wolski - Nicklas Backstrom - Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera - Mike Ribeiro - Joel Ward
Marcus Johansson - Matt Hendricks - Eric Fehr
John Erskine - John Carlson
Karl Alzner - Mike Green
Jeff Schultz - Tomas Kundratek
Goal: Michael Neuvirth
*From their last against against NJ. Again, these may be different today.