Game Day Thread: Bruins @ Sabres

The Bruins are on the road, visiting the Buffalo Sabres for the 3rd time this week. It will be broadcast on regional networks NESN+, ESPN+, and MSG-B.

Last time in Bruins Hockey…

The Bruins were playing the Sabres, at the Key Bank Center.
Bruins win by 5-1 with another great performance from rookie netminder Jeremy Swayman, increasing their lead over the Rangers in the division standings by 2 points.

The Bruins are now at 27-12-6 which still has them at 4th in an increasingly tight MassMutual East division, 4 points behind the Caps, 3 behind the Penguins and Isles, and 8 ahead of the Rangers.
They are also 4th in the division via points percentage with a total of .667.
Boston has 11 games remaining in the season, including tonight’s match. The other division contenders have only 9.

What will be the lines today?

Well we’ve got some new players, so coach Bruce Cassidy has some new lines.

UPDATE: Bergeron out with lower body injury! (he did takee a puck off of his leg last night)

The Injury Report: Ondrej Kaše is skating, Halak is still on COVID quarantine. Kevan Miller has should be back from his foot infection (cellulitis).
Brandon Carlo is out with an upper-body injury. Jarred Tinordi is supposedly ok after becoming a blood fountain vs the Caps, but has not been on the game roster.
On the positive side, Matt Grzelcyk and Jakub Zboril returned on Tuesday, and Grizz should be in again tonight with Kampfer possibly returning in place of Zboril. Connor Clifton will be out of the lineup to make way for Miller.

Tuukka Rask will start in goal tonight, with Jeremy Swayman as his backup. Jaroslav Halak remains out.

Bruins Forward Lines
Brad Marchand	Charlie Coyle	David Pastrnak
#71 Taylor Hall	David Krejci	Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie	Sean Kuraly	Jake DeBrusk
Anton Blidh	#6 Curtis Lazar	Chris Wagner
Bruins Defensive pairs
Matt Grzelcyk	Charlie McAvoy
#6 Mike Reilly	Kevan Miller
Bruins Goaltending
#40 Tuukka Rask	(#1 Jeremy Swayman)
Jeremy Lauzon	Steven Kampfer

This evening’s opponent are the Buffalo Sabres, who the Bruins have beaten five times out of five. The Sabres are no longer playing like the worst team in the league, though they have not pulled themselves out of the bottom of the standings.
Jack Eichel has been shut down for the season after having missed most of it due to injury. However, they play the Bruins hard if given opportunities. Colin Miller looks like he’s been replaced with William Borgen on the Sabres’ defense. Miller had been fairly dangerous vs the Bruins, but Borgen is ready to come back after having been out with a fractured arm. Depth goaltender of hyper-Finnish nomenclature, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is queued to start in net for his first time as an NHL player for Buffalo tonight. He wqas supposed to start last night, but fifteen minutes before puck drop, we got word that Tokarski would be in again. At this point, I don’t know what they are playing for other than pride. They only have nine games remaining, and are 4 points behind the #30 team in the league. And leapfrogging another team in the standings only damages their chances at getting the #1 overall draft pick.
(h/t Daily Faceoff and John Vogl):

Sabres Forwards
#53 Jeff Skinner — #23 Sam Reinhart — #68 Victor Olofsson
#74 Rasmus Asplund — #37 Casey Mittelstadt — #72 Tage Thompson
#96 Anders Bjork — #24 Dylan Cozens — #25 Arttu Ruotsalainen
#13 Tobias Rieder — #38 Riley Sheahan — #91 Drake Caggiula

Sabres Defense
#54 Mattias Samuelsson — #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#26 Rasmus Dahlin — #10 Henri Jokiharju
#78 Jacob Bryson — #3 William Borgen

Sabres Goaltending
#1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
(#31 Dustin Tokarski)