Ten games into the season and the Buffalo Sabres sit 14th in the Eastern Conference with a 3-6-1 record. The team has a -7 goal differential as they have scored the third most goals in the Eastern Conference and have allowed a league worst 3.70 goals/game. The season looks doomed before it even gets off the ground at this point.
The Sabres have found themselves in this situation before and have crawled out of it. With the shortened season, the time to turn around the season is going to have to happen this weekend. They face off against the Montreal Canadiens, a team that shellacked the Sabres 6-1 last Saturday afternoon.
Buffalo Lines
Vanek – Hodgson – Pominville
Ott – Grigorenko – Stafford
Foligno – Ennis – Hecht
Scott – Ellis – McCormick
Myers – Pardy
Leopold – Sulzer
Brennan – Weber
Goal: Ryan Miller
Scratches/Injuries: Leino, Regehr, Sekera, Kaleta, Gerbe, Ehrhoff
Canadiens Lines
Brian Gionta – Tomas Plekanec – Rene Bourque
Erik Cole – David Desharnais – Max Pacioretty
Brandon Prust – Alex Galchenyuk – Brendan Gallagher
Travis Moen – Lars Eller – Colby Armstrong
Josh Gorges – Raphael Diaz
Alexei Emelin – Andrei Markov
Francis Bouillon – PK Subban