Game Preview #31: New Jersey Devils vs the Buffalo Sabres

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (10-15-5) at the Buffalo Sabes (10-15-5)

The Time: 7:00 PM EST

The Broadcast: TV - MSG+

Over the break, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to recreate the taxi squad assignment for the next few months to help teams get through this surge of the pandemic. Jesper Boqvist, Kevin Bahl, and Marian Studenic are now assigned to the Devils’ taxi squad.

Back from covid protocol are Hischier, Graves, Kuokkanen, Jaros, and Subban, as well as Jesper Bratt who returns from his non-covid illness. Mackenzie Blackwood has also returned from his neck injury. Jon Gillies and Tomas Tatar are still out on covid protocol at the time of writing, as am I, although that shouldn’t affect the Devils too much.

The Buffalo Sabres, on the other hand, seems to be having more trouble with covid, and honestly, I am not sure why this game is still going on, since Buffalo only had 9 healthy NHL forwards at their last practice. Defenseman Colin Miller left practice early with a nagging injury. Sabres Head Coach Don Granato is also in covid protocol.

Potential Lines:

Buffalo:

Peterka - Thompsom - Tuck
Asplund - Ruotsalainen - Olofsson
Murray - Krebs - Okposo
Bjork - Eakin - Hayden

Dahlin - Jokijarju
Bryson - Miller*
Butcher - Pysyk

Luukkonen/Subban

New Jersey:

Total speculation but why not-

Zacha - Hischier - Sharangovitch -
Johnsson - Mercer - Bratt
Kuokkanen - Hughes - Studenic
Vesey - McLeod - Bastian

Graves - Hamilton
Siegenthaler - Severson
Smith - Subban

Blackwood

One Last Word

Today’s preview will be my last article with All About the Jersey. I’ve had such an amazing time the last few years with this wonderful community. I want to thank everyone for always making me feel welcome here from day one. I will still be around in the comments and on Twitter to share my terrible opinions, so don’t plan on missing me too much.

One last time, as always, thanks for reading!