Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Sabres lost to the best team in the NHL on Thursday night, and will now host the league’s second-best team on Saturday night.
The Boston Bruins are 12-2-0 this season and have won nine out of their last 10 games.
The Sabres won’t have captain Kyle Okposo in the lineup on Saturday, as he’s considered day-to-day.
Buffalo has built a four-game losing streak, which has plummeted them from sixth to 20th in the NHL with a .500 record.
The good news is the Sabres are still second in league scoring, averaging 3.86 goals per-game. However, the bad news is horrendous defense and average goaltending has them 24th in goals-against average at 3.50 goals per-game.
The Sabres have scored a power play goal in eight-straight games, and in 11 out of 12 games. That has Buffalo sixth in the NHL with a 26.4% success rate.
It only makes sense that the penalty killing has struggled, because Mattias Samuelsson, Henri Jokiharju and Ilya Lyubushkin are such a big part of that unit. Buffalo is just 25th in the league when the other team has the extra man.
The team is slumping, but Tage Thompson isn’t. In his last seven games, Thompson has nine goals and six assists for 15 points. He's 12th in league scoring this season with 18 points, and eighth in goals with nine.
Alex Tuch has slid into a slump that has also carried over into his puck management. He really struggled against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. He had numerous turnovers, and one led to a breakaway goal. Tuch has just one goal in nine games.
The team needs his production, as they’re 3-6-0 in those nine games.
Buffalo is 1-7-2 in their last 10 games against the Bruins, and 2-7-1 on home ice.
Craig Anderson has been the team’s better goalie this season by far, and he gets the call in net on Saturday. Anderson is 3-1-0 this season with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage.
At the other end, it won’t be the red-hot Linus Ullmark in goal for Boston. This season, the former Sabres netminder is 10-1-0 with a 1.95 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage. History tells us Ullmark won’t keep this up, but then again, maybe he’s hit his stride at 29-years-old.
Buffalo will, instead, face Keith Kinkaid due to an injury to Jeremy Swayman.
Kinkaid’s last win in the NHL was back on Dec. 15, 2021 against the Arizona Coyotes. Kinkaid has played 167 NHL games and is 69-58-21 overall with a 2.92 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
I think it’s safe to say he’s never played behind as good of a defensive team as the Bruins are.
Buffalo just finished with the best defensive team in the NHL in the Golden Knights and scored four goals on them. The Bruins are second, as they have only given up four goals in their last three games.
David Pastrnak is third in league scoring with nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points in 14 games.
Brad Marchand has been back from injury for six games and has eight points.
Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy returned for his first game of the season on Thursday and scored the game-winning goal.
Join Brian Koziol and me for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 6 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from head coach Don Granato, and forwards Zemgus Girgensons and Casey Mittelstadt.
