Buffalo have to arrest the slide

Buffalo Sabres (9-11-4) vs Minnesota Wild (14-7-4)

Puck Drop: 8:00 pm Eastern Time | Grand Casino Arena | Minnesota, MN

TV: MSG, ESPN+

Radio: WGR 550

Know Your Opponent

Minnesota Wild

Record: 14-7-4 | 32 PTS

Last Game: 3-2 SO win against Colorado Avalanche

Division Ranking: 3rd, Central

PP: 4th, 25.0% (22/88) [Sabres: 21st, 17.4% (12/69)]

PK: 24th, 78.0% (46/59) [Sabres: 2nd, 88.1% (59/67)]

What to Watch

1. Road Woes

The Sabres had a chance to get back to .500 parity yesterday afternoon but were well-beaten by a clinical Devils side. Tonight Buffalo are on the road where they have been quite atrocious – they are 1-6-2 away from the KeyBank Center, which is the worst mark in the league just behind the Toronto Maple Leafs at 2-7-0. Against a solid opponent with a good record at home, the Sabres on paper have no chance tonight. But as we’ve seen at home, there’s never telling which Sabres show up.

Buffalo are just as likely to come out strong and leave Minnesota with a win as they are to come out flat and tired and then get shelled. Unfortunately we’re seeing more of the latter and less of the former.

2. Hot & Wild

The Wild are also in the second game of a back-to-back like the Sabres, but they took on the league-leading Avalanche last night. Not only that, but they beat Colorado in the shootout ending their 10-game winning streak. Minnesota are in the form of their lives right now with seven wins in a row, going 9-0-1 in their last ten and are also 8-3-3 at home.

3. Who Steps Up?

After I called out the Zucker – McLeod – Quinn line for being the best line and predicting they would score last game, I am understandably gun-shy this time around. While the Sabres second line did impress and actually outchanced the Devils 10-5, they were goalied by Jake Allen like the rest of the team, and then punished for errors in their own end.

Instead, I’ll just leave it open. On any given day in the NHL to win a game you need to get decent goaltending and at least a handful of your players playing starring roles. We talk about homegrown leadership often on this team, so who are those players? And are they leading by words, actions or a combination of both?

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Josh Doan – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Tyson Kozak – Noah Ostlund – Zach Benson
Josh Dunne – Peyton Krebs – Beck Malenstyn

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Mattias Samuelsson
Bowen Byram – Conor Timmins
Jacob Bryson – Owen Power

Goalies: Alex Lyon, Ukko Pekka Luukkonen (projected starter)

Minnesota Wild

Forwards

Kirill Kaprizov – Danila Yurov – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Liam Ohgren – Ryan Hartman – Yakov Trenin
Ben Jones – Nico Sturm – Tyler Pitlick

Defense

Jacob Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Brock Faber
Zeev Buium – Zach Bogosian

Goalies: Filip Gustavsson (projected starter), Jesper Wallstedt