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Buffalo Sabres vs. Montreal Canadiens Preview: Time To Head North Of The Border

It might be a good thing that this Buffalo Sabres team gets to spend so much time on the road because it gives all of the new players a chance to get to know each other Obetter. The Sabres will play their second of four straight road games with a trip to the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.

The Sabres are heading into the Bell Centre with a 3-1 record and have all three of those wins away from the friendly confines of the First Niagara Center. The Sabres will leave from here to go on their first Florida excursion, with games against the Florida Panthers on Thursday and Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff is appreciating all of this road time, according to the Buffalo News’ Miguel Rodriguez:

“It’s kind of a plus,” defenseman Christian Ehrhoff said. “For me being that much on the road, it’s nice to get to know everybody. It’s a good team-building thing. You’ve got to be careful you win your road games like we have so far and get off to a good start.”

Mike Weber may get his first chance to start in the lineup after Marc-Andre Gragnani struggled in the last couple of games. Weber, a Pittsburgh native, sat against his hometown team on Saturday while Gragnani struggled with giveaways and overall poor defensive play. The tides may change as Gragnani may sit against his hometown team in lieu of Mike Weber, even though Lindy Ruff won’t commit to that happening just yet:

“Have you seen a game lineup yet? Is there a guarantee he’s playing?” said Ruff when asked about Gragnani getting a chance to play in his hometown. “I thought his last game at Pitt was a little bit of a tough time. We know what he provides for us. He’s made some great plays on the power play for us. It’s the defending where Marc still has to work on.”

For the Canadiens, they have struggled in their first four games by only getting points in two of those four games with a 1-2-1 record. The Canadiens dropped their last game on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche with a 6-5 shootout loss. With the early struggles, our Canadiens site, Habs Eyes On The Prize, is taking a look at whether backup goaltender Peter Budaj should start the game against the Sabres.

Budaj’s last win [against the Sabres] came in an 4-3 overtime win over Miller, where he mad 37 saves. You have to go back two years to October 25, 2008 for the next win, a 2-1 shootout. Back then Jaroslav Spacek was still a Sabre, and some guy named Joe Sakic was still with the Avalanche. March of 2007 was his first win against Buffalo, a 3-2 decision. His lone loss game in December of 2005, when he replaced David Aebischer, allowing one goal in a 6-4 Sabres win with Martin Biron in goal.

For the Sabres, with Jhonas Enroth getting the win against the Penguins on Saturday, I would expect Miller to get the start again. Miller has a 19-8-5 record in his career against the Canadiens with a 2.33 goals against average and .921 save percentage. According to Lindy Ruff, Enroth should expect to get another game this week either against the Panthers or Lightning in order to keep both Enroth and Miller fresher throughout the season.

Game time is 7:30 pm Eastern.