On Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres (8-23-3) came off one of their most impressive wins of the season against Winnipeg. Tonight, the Sabres begin their home-and-home series with the Boston Bruins (23-9-2) at the First Niagara Center.
Tuesday night was one of Buffalo’s best performances, putting up four goals for only the second time all season. The Sabres know they have to keep performing the way they did against the Jets in order to produce some wins. Captain Steve Ott can sense that the winds of change are blowing in Buffalo.
“I think the changes are occurring. I think the character has changed immensely over the last month-and-a-half or so,” said Ott. “We knew it wasn’t an over night process, but the confidence continues, to stay in games and know that we can play with any team.”
For the Bruins, they came off of a 2-0 win in Boston against the Calgary Flames Tuesday. Zdeno Chara provided the Bruins with both goals, while Tuukka Rask shut the door on the Flames with 21 saves in net. In seven games played in December, Boston has a 5-2-0 record.
Alex Sulzer and Cody Hodgson returned to the lineup from their injuries on Tuesday night, and Kevin Porter was inserted into the lineup after being recalled from Rochester. John Scott and Chad Ruhwedel sat out the game, but look for John Scott to make a return in the lineup against the “Big, Bad Bruins”. Chad Ruhwedel could also make his season debut with the Sabres tonight. Cody McCormick will be out 4-6 weeks with his upper-body injury, and has been placed on long-term injured reserve.
For Boston, they are a banged-up group of players. Five of their starters are on injured reserve, including Adam McQuaid (lower-body), Chris Kelly (broken ankle), Dan Paille (concussion), Loui Eriksson (concussion), and Dougie Hamilton (lower-body). Shawn Thornton is currently appealing his 15-game suspension handed to him for his incident with Penguins defenseman, Brooks Orpik.
Ryan Miller is expected to get the start again in net for Buffalo, while Tuukka Rask looks to be in net once again for the Bruins.