The Bruins are in Buffalo tonight and will be gunning for their third straight win when they take the ice at HSBC Arena against their Northeast Division foe, the Buffalo Sabres. The B's are coming off of back-to-back shutout victories over division opponents with a 2-0 win versus Toronto last Thursday and a 4-0 victory over Ottawa on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the Sabres will look to snap a three-game skid and bounce back from a 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
The Sabres entered the season with high expectations, but have stumbled out of the gate with a 3-7-2 record. Buffalo is still looking for its first home win of the season after starting 0-4-1 at HSBC Arena, but Bruins head coach Claude Julien still considers Buffalo a tough place to play, saying "That’s never an easy building to play in. I don’t care what they’re going through right now, they always play us hard."
The Sabres may be without star goaltender Ryan Miller tonight. The Buffalo puck stopper is questionable for tonight's tilt with the B's with what is being described as tightness in his lower body. Miller did practice with the team on Tuesday, but the Sabres have called up Jhonas Enroth from the Portland Pirates on an emergency basis in case Miller can't play tonight. Enroth has appeared in one NHL game, which happened to be against the Bruins last season. The 22-year-old Swedish netminder gave up 4 goals on 37 shots in a 4-2 loss to the B's on November 7, 2009. Backup goalie Patrick Lalime has appeared in 2 games this season and owns a 0-2-0 record to go along with .871 save percentage and 4.03 GAA.
The Sabres are expected to get back Jason Pomminville, who was cleared to play after missing 9 games while dealing with concussion issues. Former pint-sized Boston College standout Nathan Gerbe is questionable for tonight's game after taking a puck in the jaw in Friday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Atlanta Thrashers.
One bright spot for the Sabres this season has been the play of Derek Roy. Roy has collected 13 points (6-7-13) in 12 games.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff scratched captain Craig Rivet from the last two games and hopes that it will serve as a wake-up call to the veteran defenseman. Rivet is expected to be back in the lineup tonight.
Claude Julien tweaked his lines a bit during Saturday night's game against Ottawa as Blake Wheeler and Mark Recchi swapped lines. Julien stuck with those line in practice on Monday and Tuesday. Patrice Bergeron centered a line of Mark Recchi and Jordan Caron, while Tyler Seguin was the pivot on a line between Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET. The Public Skate open thread gets underway at 6:30 PM ET. NESN will carry the game in New England and you can hear tonight's action on 98.5 FM The Sports Hub. For more on tonight's game and the Buffalo Sabres, check out Die By The Blade.