Game Preview: Buffalo Sabres @ Pittsburgh Penguins

Game Time: 7:30pm/ET
From: Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
Penguins Record: 10-4-2 (4th in Eastern Conference)
Flyers Record: 9-4-3 (5th in Eastern Conference)
Last Meeting:
March 12th, 2008 @ Pittsburgh (7-3 Pens)
[Boxscore] [Video]

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS LINE COMBINATIONS:
Max Talbot - Sidney Crosby - Miroslav Satan
Ruslan Fedotenko - Evgeni Malkin - Petr Sykora
Tyler Kennedy - Jordan Staal - Matt Cooke
Pascal Dupuis - Mike Zigomanis - Eric Godard

Brooks Opik - Kris Letang
Rob Scuderi - Hal Gill
Mark Eaton - Alex Goligoski

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Marc- Andre Fleury (7-3-2 / 2.93GAA / .907 SV%)

BUFFALO SABRES LINE COMBINATIONS:
Thomas Vanek - Derek Roy - Ales Kotalik
Jochen Hecht - Tim Connolly - Jason Pominville
Daniel Paille - Clarke Macarthur - Maxim Afinogenov
Andrew Peters - Adam Mair - Paul Gaustad

Jaroslav Spacek - Andrej Sekera
Toni Lydman - Teppo Numminen
Craig Rivet - Henrik Tallinde

BUFFALO SABRES PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Ryan Miller (8-2-2 / 2.08GAA / .928 SV%)

PENGUINS LEADERS:
GOALS: Satan (8)
ASSISTS: Malkin (20)
POINTS: Malkin (26)
+/-: Sydor (+5)

SABRES LEADERS:
GOALS: Vanek (12)
ASSISTS: Spacek (8)
POINTS: Vanek (15)
+/-: Lydman (+6)


The Sabres were blown out last night, losing 6-1 to Columbus. However, Patrick Lalime played that game and Ryan Miller will be in the net tonight. The Sabres are nipping at the Penguins' heels in the Eastern Conference standings. Only one point separates the two teams.

The Sabres are playing the second game of a back-to-back but after how they performed yesterday I expect them to be very aggressive tonight as they will want to bounce back after an embarrassing loss.

Marc-Andre Fleury had an off game against Philadelphia on Thursday, but I expect him to be back to his usual form tonight. Ty Conklin was in net for all four Penguins/Sabres games last season, so Fleury hasn't seen this team in a while.

There isn't much bad blood between these two teams, but I expect this to be a close game as both teams are quite evenly matched. The Penguins have the edge in offense, but Miller has a very low goals against average and doesn't allow many pucks by him. It should be a good game.

Prediction: 3-2 Penguins


Buffalo Media:

Newspapers:
The Buffalo News

Blogs:
Sabres Report
Die By The Blade
The Goose's Roost
The Willful Caboose

And just because it's funny:
Connelly and Kotalik