Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Buffalo Sabres

Game Time: 7:30pm/ET
From: HSBC Arena, Buffalo, NY
Penguins Record: 13-5-3 (4th in Eastern Conference)
Sabres Record: 10-8-3 (9th in Eastern Conference)
Last Meeting:
November 15th, 2008 @ Pittsburgh (5-2 Pens)


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

Brooks Opik - Kris Letang
Hal Gill - Alex Goligoski
Phillipe Boucher - Rob Scuderi

***Maxime Talbot will be in the lineup, however Janne Pesonen is also expected in the lineup. It is unknown who will sit this game out but someone will need to be a healthy scratch***

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
John Curry (1-0-0 / 0.00GAA / 1.000 SV%)

BUFFALO SABRES LINE COMBINATIONS:
Thomas Vanek*** - Jochen Hecht - Jason Pominville
Clarke MacArthur - Derek Roy - Drew Stafford
Daniel Paille - Paul Gaustad - Marc Mancari
Matt Ellis - Adam Mair - Patrick Kaleta

* Vanek will be a game-time decision for the Sabres.

Jaroslav Spacek - Andrej Sekera
Toni Lydman - Craig Rivet
Hendrik Talinder - Teppo Numminen

BUFFALO SABRES PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Ryan Miller (9-5-2 / 2.54GAA / .910 SV%)

PENGUINS LEADERS:
GOALS: Malkin (10)
ASSISTS: Malkin (25)
POINTS: Malkin (35)
+/-: Malkin (+8)

SABRES LEADERS:
GOALS: Vanek (15)
ASSISTS: Sekera (10)
POINTS: Vanek (20)
+/-: Lydman (+4)


Buffalo has been hurt with injuries. Thomas Vanek, the team's leading scorer, will be a game time decision tonight after injuring his leg on Wednesday night. Tim Connoly and Ales Kotalik will both be out of the lineup as well. Both men have missed a number of games this season.

The Sabres are having a very bad November and are 3-6-1 in their last ten games.
The Penguins are 8-1-1 in their last ten.

Maxime Talbot is expected to play tonight, but so is Janne Pesonen who was called up from WBS yesterday. It will be interesting to see who will sit tonight. Tonight will also be John Curry's first start as a Penguin. He played well in relief on Wednesday, but didn't face many shots.

The Penguins have won five straight over the Sabres and the last three games in Buffalo. They're definitely on a hot streak and I think that, as long as they get pressure on Ryan Miller, they can win this game. Miller is the key for the Sabres and will need to play very well tonight for the Sabres to win.

Prediction: 4-2 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