Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - It’s not very often the Buffalo Sabres meet the Winnipeg Jets all in the span of a week. The two teams will meet in Buffalo on Monday, while they’ll get together in Winnipeg later in the week on Friday.
In between those games for the Sabres is a trip to Philadelphia on Wednesday to face the Flyers and kick off a six-game road trip.
The Sabres will welcome center Josh Norris back to the lineup on Monday night. He was injured in the third period of opening night after throwing a body check. He is eight days short of missing two months, so he’s slightly ahead of schedule.
To make room on the roster for Norris, the Sabres have reassigned defenseman Zach Metsa to the Rochester Americans.
The Sabres haven’t had the best luck recently against the Jets, going 4-4-2 in the last 10 games and 3-5-2 recently at home. If you look at it from the Winnipeg side, it’s 6-4-0 in the last 10, and the Jets have won four in-a-row in Buffalo.
Buffalo is getting a huge break as, arguably, the best goaltender in the world, Connor Hellebuyck, is out 4-to-6 weeks after having knee surgery. The 32-year-old goalie has missed six games, and the Jets are 2-4-0 in his absence, including four losses in five games.
Former Sabres goalie Eric Comrie is 2-3-0 in that time with a 3.03 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. Overall this season, Comrie is 5-4-0 with a 2.91 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage.
At the other end, it will be Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal for the Sabres. He’s 3-3-1 this season with a 2.73 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. His goals-against leads the team, and his save percentage is the team’s worst.
In his last five appearances, Luukkonen is 2-3-0 with a 2.46 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff isn’t thinking about who is going to be in net for the Jets. He says it’s all about his group.
"I think we spend more time worrying about our play," Ruff admitted following Monday's morning skate. "I look at all the injuries that we’ve gone through, and I don’t think teams walk in and say, 'Well, we’re fortunate to play Buffalo because they’re missing Norris, [Justin] Danforth.' And other goalies have already proven throughout the league they can step in and be more than capable of winning hockey games. So I don’t want our team for one minute to take it for granted, or think it’s going to be easy because their goalie’s missing."
Ruff didn’t coach Comrie while he was in Buffalo, but goalies coach Mike Bales did, and Ruff thinks that can help this week.
"I think there’s still an element of taking goalies' eyes away and making him see, and still we’ve got to get inside and we’ve got to score the hard goals," Ruff said.
Buffalo is still last in the Eastern Conference with a points percentage of .480. The Toronto Maple Leafs are .500.
The Sabres are five points behind the Montreal Canadiens for third place in the Atlantic Division, and five back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference.
Winnipeg is in the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot with a points percentage of .542. That has them 18th in the NHL, while Buffalo is 29th.
Mark Scheifele is 13th in league scoring with 13 goals and 18 assists for 31 points.
Kyle Connor has 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points.
MONDAY LINES:
Forwards:
Doan - Ostlund - Tuch
Greenway - Krebs - Malenstyn (Kozak)
Benson - Norris - Thompson
Zucker - McLeod - Quinn
Defense:
Power - Bryson
Dunne - Metsa
Byram - Timmins
Dahlin - Samuelsson
Tune in during "Schopp and the Bulldog" for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6:30 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff, Norris and Noah Ostlund.
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