Nearly everyone picked the Buffalo Sabres to finish last in the NHL this season and be one of the teams with an opportunity to select Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel at the top of the 2015 draft.
But after a rough start to the season, the Sabres have showed good improvement in the past two weeks with 6-4-0 record in their last 10 games.
Buffalo’s next challenge is the Boston Bruins, who’ve returned home after taking three of a possible six points on a Western Conference road trip. The B’s have dropped out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 3-5-2 record in their last 10 games, which makes Sunday night’s matchup against an inferior Sabres team almost a must-win.
Boston’s offense has struggled throughout the campaign and has scored more than two goals in just three of the last 12 games. That said, there is reason to believe the Bruins will score enough goals to win Sunday because the Sabres rank 26th in goals against average and 22nd in penalty killing, and allow the most shots (35.6) per game.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
BOSTON BRUINS (16-14-3, sixth in Atlantic Division)
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Seth Griffith
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith
Chris Kelly-Carl Soderberg-Loui Eriksson
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Craig Cunningham
Zdeno Chara-Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski-Dennis Seidenberg
Torey Krug-Kevan Miller
Tuukkka Rask
BUFFALO SABRES (13-18-2, eighth in Atlantic Division)
Drew Stafford-Zemgus Girgensons-Tyler Ennis
Cody Hodgson-Brian Flynn-Brian Gionta
Johan Larsson-Mikhail Grigorenko-Nicolas Deslauriers
Marcus Foligno-Tim Schaller-Chris Stewart
Josh Gorges-Tyler Myers
Nikita Zadorov-Rasmus Ristolainen
Andrej Meszaros-Andre Benoit
Jhonas Enroth
Thumbnail photo via Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports
