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 Josh Norris back in the lineup. 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. Buffalo will have to make a roster move by 5 p.m. on Monday.
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 this building.
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 and .891 save percentage. Overall Comrie is 5-4-0 with a 2.91 goals against and .898 save percentage.
At the other end will be Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He’s 3-3-1 with a 2.73 goals against and .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 and .897 save percentage.
Lindy Ruff isn’t thinking about who is going to be in net for the Jets. He said it’s all about them,
“I think we spend more time worrying about our play. 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, Danforth' and other goalies have already proven throughout the league that 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 here, but goalies coach Mike Bales did and Ruff thinks that can help this week,
“It can be for sure, 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.”
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 in back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last Wild Card in the East.
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.
Join “Schopp and the Bulldog” for pregame starting at 6:30 when you’ll hear from Ruff, Norris and Noah Ostlund.
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
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