Game 5

Buffalo Sabres (3-1-0) vs. New Jersey Devils (2-1-0)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST | Prudential Center | Newark, NJ

TV: MSG

Radio: WGR 550

SB Nation Devils Blog: All About The Jersey

Know Your Opponent

New Jersey Devils

Record: (2-1-0) | 4 PTS

Division Ranking: 7th in Metropolitan

PP: 22nd (16.7%)

PK: 19th (76.9%)

1. Return to New Jersey

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Will Butcher heads to the Prudential Center for the first time in his professional career as an opposing player.

Butcher, acquired by Buffalo in an offseason trade, spent the first four seasons of his NHL career with the New Jersey Devils.

In those four seasons, Butcher played in 238 games while amassing 106 points (14 goals, 92 assists).

Saturday night marks the first time that Butcher will take on the New Jersey Devils and emotions are certainly expected to be high.

2. Bouncing Back

The Buffalo Sabres experienced a loss for the first time this season on Friday night against the Boston Bruins.

While Buffalo continued to play their high-event style of hockey, which has quickly become common place, the Bruins skill level was simply too much for the Sabres.

Can Buffalo get back to their winning ways against the Devils? One thing is for certain, the Sabres will need to turn more scoring chances into goals.

3. An Unlikely Group of Goalscorers

With the absence of offense from injured forward Jack Eichel, different players will need to step up and take the lead offensively.

Through four games, that has happened.

Victor Olofsson, Kyle Okposo, Tage Thompson and Zemgus Girgensons are tied for the team lead in goals. Each player has two goals heading into Saturday night’s matchup with the New Jersey Devils.

It is likely that the goal scoring prowess of this foursome will not keep up with this pace throughout the season but a hot start to a long season never hurts.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Jeff Skinner – Dylan Cozens – Vinnie Hinostroza

Rasmus Asplund – Tage Thompson – Victor Olofsson

Anders Bjork – Zemgus Girgensons – Kyle Okposo

Drake Caggiula – Arttu Ruotsalainen – John Hayden

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Will Butcher

Jacob Bryson – Colin Miller

Robert Hagg – Mark Pysyk

Starter: Dustin Tokarski

New Jersey Devils

Forwards

Pavel Zacha – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt

Yegor Sharangovich – Michael McLeod – Janne Kuokkanen

Andreas Johnsson – Dawson Mercer – Tomas Tatar

Mason Geertsen – Frederik Gauthier – Jimmy Vesey

Defense

Ryan Graves – Dougie Hamilton

Jonas Siegenthaler – P.K. Subban

Damon Severson – Christian Jaros

Starter: Scott Wedgewood