Preview: Sabres Head to Newark to face the Devils

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Buffalo looks to rebound from a tough loss on Monday night.

Game 16

Buffalo Sabres (5-8-2) vs. New Jersey Devils (6-5-2)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EST | Prudential Center | Newark, NJ

TV: MSG

Radio: WGR 550

SB Nation Devils Blog: All About The Jersey

Know Your Opponent

New Jersey Devils

Record: (6-5-2) | 14 PTS

Division Ranking: 7th in East Division

PP: 21st (15.8%)

PK: 31st (59.5%)

1. Back-to-Back

Less than 24 hours after losing to the New York Islanders, the Buffalo Sabres find themselves back on the ice.

With the condensed schedule itself being condensed, this week is where the Sabres feel the crunch. Tonight’s game is second of five games this week.

Even more strange? The Buffalo Sabres are in the swing of playing New Jersey in three out of four games.

This season continues to be strange.

2. Sam’s On Fire

Sam Reinhart is feeling it as of late.

With five points in his last five games, including three goals, it is safe to say that Reinhart is not only red hot but he might qualify as “being on-fire”.

This Sam Reinhart goal pic.twitter.com/bwYHpG1HRC

— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) February 23, 2021

The only question here - how does Reinhart follow last night’s mind-bending goal?

3. Looking to Bounce Back

Despite the aforementioned praise for Sam Reinhart, the Olofsson - Eichel - Reinhart line just did not have a good evening against the New York Islanders.

With a 26.07% expected goals for playing five-on-five, the Sabres top line was easily the worst performing line of both teams on the ice on Monday night.

Jack Eichel certainly did not look like himself, which clearly tells you that there is room for improvement.

If Buffalo wants to turn things around against New Jersey, better hockey is needed from the Sabres top line.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Victor Olofsson - Jack Eichel - Sam Reinhart

Taylor Hall - Eric Staal - Dylan Cozens

Tobias Rieder - Cody Eakin - Kyle Okposo

Jeff Skinner - Curtis Lazar - Riley Sheahan

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin - Colin Miller

Brandon Montour - Matt Irwin

Henri Jokiharju - Brandon Davidson

Starter: Carter Hutton

New Jersey Devils

Forwards

Pavel Zacha - Nico Hischier - Jesper Bratt

Andreas Johnsson - Jack Hughes - Kyle Palmieri

Mikhail Maltsev - Travis Zajac - Nikita Gusev

Miles Wood - Michael McLeod - Nathan Bastian

Defense

Ryan Murray - P.K. Subban

Ty Smith - Damon Severson

Dmitry Kulikov - Sami Vatanen

Starter: Mackenzie Blackwood

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[foster 8,425]

Where's our pest on this team?  We need the next Peca/Kaleta.  Risto is the closest thing we have right now.  Lazar sort of fills the role, but it's not the same.  

I want to see some passion.  I want to see someone step up and take a leadership position and hold others accountable.

Maybe Arttu could be a good fit.  

And if we're going to lose, make it fun and lose 7-5.  Enough of the slow bleed losses.