Time: 7:00 Eastern
Place: KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY
TV: BSDET, SNE, SNW, MSG-B
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Sabres Blog: Die By the Blade
Well, last night was fun. Hopefully you sat and watched the whole thing and didn’t begin switching back and forth between the game and Pretty Woman on AMC after the first period, because that would be shameful. If you’re out of the loop, Detroit came back from a 4-0 hole to beat the Penguins 5-4 in OT in Pittsburgh last night, and now they roll into Buffalo for a showdown tonight against a team who has similarly racked up goals against them the way the Pens did in the opening 20 last night.
These two teams last met a month ago, with Detroit falling just short of the comeback, 5-4. Prior to that, they were embarrassed 8-3 early in the season. Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens have each scored three against Detroit this season, so they will be two guys to look out for tonight. Shockingly, Tage Thompson has 50(!) points in 32 games this season. Unless you’re a Sabres fan, the first you probably heard of this guy was last year with his respectable 68-point campaign.
It will be an interesting question in net tonight. Go with Ville Husso, who only put in 20 minutes last night but let in 4 goals, or Magnus Hellberg who denied all 19 shots he faced? Tough choices, but Coach Lalonde has earned a lot of trust from, well, I think pretty much everyone this season, so I’ll be optimistic with whichever choice.