Game 43
Buffalo Sabres (22-14-6) vs New Jersey Devils (16-18-7)
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM | KeyBank Center | Buffalo, NY
TV: MSG-B
Radio: WGR 550
SB Nation Devils blog: All About The Jersey
Know Your Opponent
New Jersey Devils
Record: (16-18-7) | 39 points
Last 10: 5-5-0
Division Ranking: 7th in the Metro Division
Conference Ranking: 13th in the Eastern Conference
PP: 18th (18.9%)
PK: 2nd (85.2%)
What to Watch
1. Key Injuries
The Sabres may be without two of their best players tonight in Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. Well, the Devils are in a similar situation as well. They’ll be without their best player Taylor Hall tonight and Marcus Johansson. Injury excuse won’t really fly for the Sabres tonight.
2. Take advantage of the scheduling
The schedule wasn’t friendly to the Sabres back in December, but it works in their favor tonight. The Devils will be playing their third game in five nights and just finished up a west coast trip with a loss in Vegas on Sunday.
3. Who’s going to step up?
Based off the lines in practice, Vladimir Sobotka and Tage Thompson will move up to the top line with Jeff Skinner. Conor Sheary and Jason Pominville will get an opportunity to play with Evan Rodrigues. Casey Mittelstadt and C.J. Smith will be together on the third line.
Without Eichel and Reinhart there will be some interesting line trios. We’ll see who steps up to produce the scoring with two of the big three out of the lineup.
Buffalo Sabres
Forward
Jeff Skinner – Vladimir Sobotka – Tage Thompson
Conor Sheary – Evan Rodrigues – Jason Pominville
C.J. Smith – Casey Mittelstadt – Zemgus Girgensons
Remi Elie – Johan Larsson – Kyle Okposo
Defense
Lawrence Pilut – Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella – Jake McCabe
Rasmus Dahlin – Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Carter Hutton (unconfirmed)
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Jesper Bratt – Nico Hischier – Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood – Travis Zajac – Blake Coleman
Blake Pietila – Pavel Zacha – Stefan Noesen
Brian Boyle – Brett Seney – Drew Stafford
Defense
Andy Greene – Damon Severson
Sami Vatanen – Steven Santini
Will Butcher – Ben Lovejoy
Starting Goaltender: Keith Kinkaid