Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – With the NHL holiday break in the rearview mirror, the Buffalo Sabres will host the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
No team around the league could travel until Wednesday morning, so the Bruins arrived at the arena bright and early.
The Sabres really didn’t need a break, because the last two games, they played pretty well.
First, the Toronto Maple Leafs came to town on Thursday and the Sabres ran them right out of the arena, 9-3. Then, Buffalo went into Madison Square Garden, overcame a 2-0 deficit, but lost in overtime, 4-3.
In November, Boston came into Buffalo and was the better team, winning 5-2. In December, the Sabres went to Boston as was the better team, winning 3-1.
Devon Levi made 31 saves in that game for the victory. Levi is 4-0-1 in his last five starts, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has lost his early season magic, losing his last six games.
Eric Comrie has lost his last five decisions.
Levi gets the call on Wednesday, as he’s allowed seven goals in 87:37 of work over his last two appearances. Overall, he’s 7-4-2 this season with a 3.25 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.
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Buffalo comes out of the break seven points out of the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference. They’re 27th in NHL points percentage at .457.
Rasmus Dahlin has five goals and four assists for nine points in his last nine games. That has him sixth in league scoring for defensemen with 29 points. His 10 goals ties Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks for the league lead amongst defensemen.
Casey Mittelstadt has three goals and four assists for seven points in five games.
Henri Jokiharju will once again be a healthy scratch on the back end.
The Bruins needed the Christmas break badly. Boston has lost four-straight games, five out of six, and nine out of 14. The skid has them now fourth in NHL points percentage at .688. They’re tied with the Dallas Stars and behind the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Rangers.
Jeremy Swayman has been terrific this season, but he’s lost three in-a-row. Two of those three games were 2-1 overtime losses. Linus Ullmark has struggled a lot more than Swayman has, losing 5-of-8 games.
Swayman gets the call on Wednesday, as he’s 9-2-4 this season with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage.
David Pastrnak is fifth in league scoring with 44 points in 32 games. His 20 goals are fourth in the NHL.
Despite giving up power play goals in five-consecutive games, the Bruins are still third in the NHL. In those five games, they’ve only killed 12-of-19 penalties, which is just 63.2%.
The Sabres have given up power play goals in 5-of-6 games, killing 13-of-18 penalties, which is a 72.2% kill rate.
The only place to hear Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on Wednesday night is on WGR Sports Radio 550. Join Mike Schopp and the Bulldog at 6:30 p.m. EST for pregame coverage when you’ll hear from Don Granato, Levi and Zemgus Girgensons.
