The Sabres are coming off a brutal last second loss to Toronto at home and rolling straight into the Bruins home turf. Boston is undefeated in regulation and is coming off a shoot out win against New Jersey.
Last seasons series caused radical off season changes to the Sabres lineup. Trading away finesse for grit, signing John Scott, and not to mention a radical change in the team attitude.
With Steve Ott, John Scott, and Marcus Foligno in the line up a fight should be expected. Thornton, Lucic, and Chara are the usual suspects but with the heated series last year nobody is out of the question.
The Sabres are an all time 134-145-29 against the Bruins averaging 3.2 goals for and 3.3 goals against. Physicality has often been the difference maker but this factor seems to have been addressed.
In order for Buffalo to be successful tonight they will need to shut down the big first line in Boston of Horton, Krejci, and Lucic. With a combined 15 points and physicality to go along with them.
Buffalo will need to find some secondary scoring in order to get the win as Tuukka Rask has been strong in net posting a 1.74 GAA and a .934 SV% through 5 games played.
Although the first line has been firing on all cylinders, three men cannot win a game alone.
The Sabres will need strong performances across the board; most importantly in net. Miller was not in good form on Tuesday and will need to step up to come out on top in this one.
The “Bruin Killer”for tonight’s game is Thomas Vanek with 25 goals and 24 assists in 45 career games against Boston.
On the flip side Boston’s ‘Sabre-Killer” is Tyler Seguin with 6 goals and 4 assists in 10 games against the blue and gold.
The Sabres could put an end to the Bruins undefeated regulation record and become one step closer to gaining a foothold in the conference.
Keys to Victory:
-Set the tone, be physical, aggressive, and stop the Bruins from getting going.
-Secondary scoring, the top line needs support on the stat sheet and pretty play only goes so far.
-Goaltending, Miller needs to be a brick wall tonight simply put.
The puck drops at 7:00 pm, with the game being broadcast on MSG.