Matchup: Boston Bruins at Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. (NESN; 98.5 FM)

Records: Boston 24-22-11, 59 points; Buffalo 32-18-7, 71 points

Past History: The Bruins won the first two meetings this season with a 4-2 victory at the Garden on Nov. 7 and 2-1 overtime win in Buffalo on Nov. 20 on the strength of Patrice Bergeron’s OT winner. But the Sabres countered with a 2-1 win of their own in Buffalo on Jan. 29. Overall, Boston is 112-102-29-5 against the Sabres, but just 44-62-15-4 in Buffalo.

Bruins Connections: Steve Montador was a trade deadline pickup last March from Anaheim, but signed with the Sabres in the offseason. In 55 games so far in Buffalo, he has 3-12-15 totals with 59 penalty minutes.

New England Ties: Former Boston University star Mike Grier (Holliston, Mass.) also signed with Buffalo over the summer. It’s Grier’s second stint with the Sabres, and he’s 9-8-17 through 48 games this year.

Injury Update: The Sabres could be without Montador, who is questionable with an undisclosed injury, and agitator Patrick Kaleta, who is doubtful with a bruised foot. The Bruins got Andrew Ference back on Sunday after missing 14 games with a groin injury, but Mark Stuart (broken finger) remains out and Johnny Boychuk (broken orbital bone) and David Krejci (right leg) have been hurt in the last two games. Boychuk was hit by a slap shot in Saturday and will be out until after the Olympic break, but the Bruins are hopeful Krejci will be able to play after leaving Sunday’s game in Montreal in the first period.

Fight Card: There were three fights in the first meeting in Boston, with Shawn Thornton taking on both Montador and Paul Gaustad and Stuart finding an unlikely opponent in Jochen Hecht. There were no fights in the two games in Buffalo, which is more par for the course for the Sabres. Buffalo is 27^th in the league with just 18 fighting majors this year. They did have a pair of fights Saturday against Columbus, but that followed a stretch of 31 games that featured only three fights. Montador leads the Sabres with five fighting majors, while Craig Rivet has four, Gaustad has three and Adam Mair and Kaleta each have two. The Bruins have had 32 fights, 14 by Thornton.

Matchup to Watch: Zdeno Chara vs. Tyler Myers. Just under 13 years separate the Bruins captain and the Sabres rookie, but the seasons of the club’s respective towering defensemen have been eerily similar. Both have played 57 games this year and have exactly 31 points. Myers, a 6-foot-8, 222-pounder who turned 20 on Feb. 1, has seven goals and 24 assists, while Chara, a 6-foot-9, 255-pounder who turns 33 on March 18, has five goals and 26 assists, but the rest of their stats line up exactly. Both are a plus-4, they each have three power-play goals, nine power-play assists and one game-winning goal. They are trending slightly in opposite directions, as Chara has picked up his game of late. He scored his first goal in 11 games on Saturday and followed that up with an assist on Sunday. Myers has no points and is a minus-4 in his last four games.

Three Keys for the B’s:

1. Tuukka time better than Miller time? – Rookie netminder Tuukka Rask is slowly taking over as the Bruins’ No. 1 goalie. He’s started the last three games, and after stopping 88 of the 92 shots he faced, including a 36-save shutout Sunday. He’s also started all three games against Buffalo, going 2-1-0 with a 1.68 GAA and a .937 save percentage. For the year, he leads the NHL with 2.02 GAA and his .929 save percentage trails only co-leaders Tomas Vokoun and Buffalo’s Ryan Miller (.931). Miller is also second in GAA at 2.16 and is 15-5-5 in 25 games against the Bruins. But Miller has struggled of late, losing his last three starts since beating Boston on Jan. 29, allowing 12 goals in those three games.

2. Shut down Vanek – Sabres left wing Thomas Vanek has long been a Bruins killer, as he has posted 19-18-37 totals and is a plus-16 in 33 career games against the Bruins. Among his goals against Boston are three game-winners, including the deciding goal in the Sabres’ 2-1 win on Jan. 29. The Bruins will have to try to prevent him from adding to those totals tonight.

3. Killing zone – This is a matchup of the top two penalty killing units in the NHL. Buffalo is ranked first, allowing just 26 goals on 197 chances (86.8 percent) and the Sabres are even better at home (9-102, 91.2 percent). The Bruins have allowed 27 power-play goals on 203 chances (86.7 percent) and are 13-90 (85.6 percent) on the road. Boston is 6 for 6 on kills in its last two games, but did allow power-play goals in six of the eight games prior to that. The Sabres gave up two goals on six chances Saturday, but prior to that had killed off 23 of 24 chances in the previous eight games and 67 of 71 chances in the previous 20 games. Buffalo’s power play is 0 for 14 in its last three games, while Boston did not have a power-play chance on Sunday, but had five goals on the man-advantage in the previous four games.

The Lowdown: The Bruins finally snapped their 10-game losing streak with Sunday’s 3-0 win at Montreal. Now they’ll try to post their first consecutive victories since beating Atlanta on Dec. 30 and Philadelphia in the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day. The Sabres are struggling through their own losing skid, having dropped their last four games. They haven’t beaten anyone since beating Boston on. Jan. 29 and have been outscored 17-9 in those four losses. Buffalo’s struggles go back even further than that, as the Sabres are just 2-7-1 in their last 10, dropping their lead in the Northeast Division to just one point over Ottawa. Still, Buffalo is 18-7-5 at home and this won’t be an easy one for the Bruins. After Philadelphia’s 3-2 win over New Jersey last night, Boston is now two points out of the final playoff spot in the East. A win tonight will pull them even with the Flyers and Lightning in points, depending on how Tampa Bay fares against Vancouver tonight.

Tags: Sabres

posted: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 1:08 am / Game Previews /
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