The Boston Bruins will try to earn their third win Saturday night in Buffalo against a Sabres team that is struggling even more than Original Six club to start the season.
Buffalo is 1-4-0, but that record isn’t too surprising. The Sabres are in Year 2 of a full rebuild, and the best outcome for them is to finish at the bottom of the NHL standings and win one of the top two picks in the draft lottery. Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel are expected to be the first two players selected in the 2015 draft, and both of these forwards project to be franchise cornerstone players.
The Bruins offense woke up a bit Thursday in a 6-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. The four goals scored were Boston’s season-high, and to continue this output, we could see B’s head coach Claude Julien move veteran forward Simon Gagne up to right wing on the first line.
Gagne started on the fourth line in Thursday’s matchup, then was promoted to the top line alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic later in the game when the Bruins were trailing. He scored his first goal as a member of the Bruins in the third period.
Gagne skated with Krejci and Lucic during Saturday’s morning skate, so it looks like he will start the game in that spot. Matt Fraser skated with the fourth line at the morning skate, and could see his first game action since Oct. 11 against the Washington Capitals. Fraser was a healthy scratch in each of the last three games after failing to tally a single point in the first three contests of the 2014-15 campaign.
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Here are the projected lines and pairings for both teams.
BOSTON (2-4-0)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Simon Gagne
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Matt Fraser
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Dennis Seidenberg-Adam McQuaid
Kevan Miller-Torey Krug
BUFFALO (1-4-0)
Matt Moulson-Tyler Ennis-Drew Stafford
Marcus Foligno-Cody Hodgson-Chris Stewart
Torrey Mitchell-Zemgus Girgensons-Brian Gionta
Nicolas Deslauriers-Brian Flynn-Cody McCormack
Josh Gorges-Tyler Myers
Mike Weber-Rasmus Ristolainen
Andre Benoit-Andrej Meszaros
Photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
