BOSTON — The Bruins have a grueling schedule in March and don’t play many teams near the bottom of the standings.
Tuesday night’s matchup at TD Garden is one of those games, as the Buffalo Sabres are in town with the league’s worst record. The Sabres have lost five straight games and are 0-1-2 against the Bruins this season.
Two of those losses were to Bruins backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg, who’s expected to start in net Tuesday. His last appearance was last Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings when he made 36 saves in a 5-2 win. Svedberg is 7-5-0 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.43 goals against average.
There weren’t any changes to Boston’s lines and pairings at Tuesday’s morning skate.
Buffalo has dealt with the injury bug of late and will be without No. 1 center Zemgus Girgensons (foot injury) against the B’s. Johan Larsson is expected to skate in his place on the top line.
Matt Hackett likely will start in net for the Sabres. He’s 0-2-0 with eight goals against and an .867 save percentage with Buffalo this season.
Here are the projected lineups for Bruins-Sabres:
BOSTON BRUINS (36-23-10, fourth in Atlantic)
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Milan Lucic-Ryan Spooner-David Pastrnak
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Max Talbot
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug-Adam McQuaid
Niklas Svedberg
BUFFALO SABRES (19-43-7, eighth in Atlantic)
Matt Moulson-Johan Larsson-Tyler Ennis
Marcus Foligno-Philip Varone-Brian Gionta
Nicolas Deslauriers-Tim Schaller-Cody Hodgson
Jerry D’Amigo-Matt Ellis-Zac Dalpe
Mike Weber-Rasmus Ristolainen
Nikita Zadorov-Chad Ruhwedel
Andre Benoit-Tyson Strachan
Matt Hackett
Check out our Bruins-Sabres Preview>>
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
