Buffalo Sabres Game Day + Fan Chatter: The Hurricanes Are Coming To Town

The Buffalo Sabres are looking to get back on their feet and extract some revenge against the Carolina ‘Canes. We break it down, and actually get around to the Fan Chatter, too!

The Buffalo Sabres are currently riding a two-game shootout losing streak, so I can head everyone off at the pass by saying I only have One Way To Not Blow The Game tonight: don’t go to a shootout!

I spoke about Buffalo’s woes in the shootout and how to fix them already today, so I won’t beat a dead horse here. Everyone already knows the Sabres don’t want to let this thing go 65 minutes, so the question is, can the Sabres give fans a full 60 minutes of hockey tonight?

It’s entirely possible that Buffalo could be riding a four-game winning streak right now if the boys could play three periods of solid hockey. After all, the Sabres took a two-game streak into Carolina, but they sure didn’t look engaged at the start of that game and followed that game up by falling behind 2-0 on the road against Florida Tuesday.

All I want for Christmas at this point is one complete, 60-minute effort!

Here is tonight’s projected line combinations:

82 Marcus Foligno – 90 Ryan O’Reilly – 23 Sam Reinhart
26 Matt Moulson – 15 Jack Eichel – 21 Kyle Okposo
9 Evander Kane – 22 Johan Larsson – 12 Brian Gionta
44 Nicolas Deslauriers/48 William Carrier – 27 Derek Grant – 28 Zemgus Girgensons

29 Jake McCabe – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
77 Dmitry Kulikov – 47 Zach Bogosian
4 Josh Gorges – 6 Cody Franson

40 Robin Lehner
31 Anders Nilsson

And now for the Fan Chatter!

1. Pick four – you read that right, four – Sabres players who might score a point in the first period. 10 pts. if you are right, and 15 if that player scores the first goal for the Sabres tonight.

2. Predict which period the Sabres get outshot the worst in, or, if you are really brave, pick the “the Sabres won’t be outshot in any period” option. (7 pts.)

3. Which team has the better save percentage? (5 pts.)

4.Predict the final combined score. (5 pts.)

5. Pick tonight’s winner! (10 pts.)

Make your picks, talk a little trash in the comments, and pray to whatever Lord you worship that the Buffalo Sabres don’t have to play more than 65 minutes of ice hockey tonight!