Sabres at Oilers preview: The toilet bowl
A late night (on the East Coast) battle between the two worst teams in the league? How is this not the game of the week?
Game #70
Buffalo Sabres (19-42-8) at Edmonton Oilers (25-36-9)
Puck Drop - 9:30pm EST - Rexall Place - Edmonton, AB
TV - MSG, TSN | Radio - WGR 550-AM
SBNation Oilers Blog - The Copper & Blue
Three Questions
1. How will Lieuwen Hackett look in his first career NHL Sabres start?
The Sabres are on their fourth starting goaltender in four games, and while tonight might not be Matt Hackett's NHL debut (he was 3-7-0 with the Wild) tonight's game will be his first start wearing blue and gold.
2. Will anyone besides Drew Stafford or Tyler Ennis score?
OK, this is just getting silly now. The Sabres have five six goals in their past six seven games, and pretty much everyone who's not on the top line has shut down offensively. Calgary Edmonton gives up 2.93 3.17 goals per game, 25th 28th in the league, so tonight would be a good time to turn things around.
3. Which team will leave tonight regretting their rebuild more?
The Oilers have been rebuilding for years, and will continue to do so next year, but at least have a few blue chip prospects to show for it. The Sabres just finished the "blowing up" phase of their do-over, but now have o face the prospect of finding rock bottom. Fun times all around.
Projected BUF Lines
Foligno - Ennis - Stafford
Conacher - Hodgson - Mitchell
Deslauriers - Flynn - D'Agostini
Scott - Ellis - Konopka
Ehrhoff – Ristolainen
McBain - Weber
Ruhwedel - Tallinder
Goal: Matt Hackett
Scratches/Injuries: Leino, Girgensons, Stewart, Sulzer, Myers
Projected EDM Lines
Taylor Hall - Sam Gagner - David Perron
Ryan Smyth - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Anton Lander
Matt Hendricks - Boyd Gordon - Ryan Jones
Luke Gazdic - Tyler Pitlick - Steve MacIntyre
Andrew Ference - Justin Schultz
Martin Marincin - Jeff Petry
Oscar Klefbom - Mark Fraser
Goal: Ben Scrivens