Game #71
Buffalo Sabres (29-35-6) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (29-33-11)
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM ET | KeyBank Center, Buffalo NY
TV: MSG-B, ESPN+
Know Your Opponent
Pittsburgh Penguins
Record: 29-33-11 | 69 PTS
Last Game: 6-1 loss to the Lightning
Division Ranking: 7th, Metropolitan
PP: 10th, 24.4% (48/197 opps) [Sabres: 27th, 17.9% (36/201 opps)]
PK: 18th, 77.2% (149/193 killed) [Sabres: 21st, 76.4% (162/212 killed)]
What to Watch
1. Continue to finish strong
Any time you can play hard and build team spirit is a good time, as far as I’m concerned. Though we have seen strong runs to close out an ultimately failed season and whimpering ends as well (we’ve had 14 shots at this!), if you can do anything to prevent the rot of a losing culture from spreading then that is the right thing to do.
Granted this might take us out of the top five conversation in the NHL Entry Draft, but so be it. As Kevyn Adams said yesterday, “When we draft players, the team could be completely different by the time they make the team. What we won’t do is compromise on competitiveness.”
2. Out of the basement
With just a point tonight (and as long as the Flyers lose against Montreal), the Sabres can climb off the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Philly are enduring a miserable run with one win in their last ten, meanwhile the Sabres are now 5-5-0 in their last ten games, including back-to-back wins over the Jets and the Sens, and four wins in their last six games.
After the Pens the Sabres have another winnable game, this time against the Flyers. Can they follow up two strong performances with what should be routine wins against bad teams?
3. Start the hot hand
Clearly right now James Reimer is the better goalie, so will Lindy Ruff continue to ride that and give him two starts out of the next three? I’d like to see Reimer between the pipes for the Pens and then the Caps on Sunday, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen playing on Saturday against the Flyers.
Projected Lineups
Buffalo Sabres
Forwards
Zach Benson – Jiri Kulich – Tage Thompson
JJ Peterka – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Jason Zucker – Peyton Krebs – Alex Tuch
Beck Malenstyn – Tyson Kozak – Isak Rosen
Defense
Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power – Jacob Bernard-Docker
Bowen Byram – Connor Clifton
Goalies: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (projected starter), James Reimer
Pittsburgh Penguins
Forwards
Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
Bokondji Imama – Joona Koppanen – Emil Bemstrom
Defense
Matt Grzelcyk – Kris Letang
Conor Timmins – Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves – Vladislav Kolyachonok
Goalies:
Tristan Jarry (projected starter), Alex Nedeljkovic