The Buffalo Sabres will try to recover from Saturday night’s loss to the Canadiens, but they’ll do it with a much different look than they had three days ago.
Out are Jhonas Enroth, Ville Leino, and Mike Weber, and rising in on white horses are Ryan Miller, Cody McCormick, and Brayden McNabb. Gone are the line combinations of yesteryear, and a fresh new batch of forward combinations are in play tonight. Out are the Canadiens, and stepping in to the silent confines of the First Niagara Center are the Ottawa Senators.
It’s the second match up of the season for these two division rivals, and playing Ottawa always gets my blood boiling with residual feelings from the early 2000’s. Anyone else feel the same?
Game #32
Buffalo Sabres (7-22-2) at Ottawa Senators (12-14-6)
Puck Drop – 7:30pm EST – First Niagara Center – Buffalo, NY
TV – MSG, SNET, Bell | Radio – WGR 550-AM
SBNation Senators Blog – Silver Seven
Three Questions
1. Which of the Sabres brand new forward lines will find the chemistry the team so desperately needs?
Four new lines, and four new trios of players will try and spark some offense for the NHL-worst Sabres. The “talent” seems to be spread evenly among the top three lines, and we should see a whole lot more of Zemgus Girgensons tonight with him playing with the 1’s.
2. Will anyone on the team finish this game with a season +/- of 0 or higher?
As of right now, there are only two players on the team whose +/- rating for the season is not in negative numbers; both Luke Adam and Brayden McNabb sit a a +/- of 0, nobody is in positive numbers. At this point, most hockey fans understand that it’s not the greatest stat in the world, but it would still be nice to have a few players without a negative number next to their name. Matt Moulson is close at -1, and Zemgus Girgensons could get there with a good game as he’s currently -2. Everyone else is -3 or (mi
3. Will the Sabres miss Ville Leino’s puck possession skills, OR, can the Sabres control play tonight like they often did against Montreal?
Buffalo has been getting better recently in the possession department, outshooting an opponent for just the fourth time all season in their game against the Habs. With Leino out tonight, will they be able to continue that trend?
Projected BUF Lines
Matt Moulson – Tyler Ennis – Zemgus Girgensons
Marcus Foligno – Steve Ott – Drew Stafford
Luke Adam – Cody Hodgson – Matt D’Agostini
John Scott – Cody McCormick – Brian Flynn
Christian Ehrhoff – Jamie McBain
Henrik Tallinder – Tyler Myers
Mark Pysyk – Brayden McNabb
Scratches/Injuries: Leino, Weber, Grigorenko, Sulzer