Mark Burke -

October 30, 2014

Boston Bruins – 10 points (5-6-0)

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Buffalo Sabres – 4 points (2-8-0)

Place: First Niagra Center

Time:7:00 p.m.

TV/Radio:NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Bruins/Sabres Tickets



The Bruins know they let one slip away last time out, and the boys will be back at the task looking to bury the sour aftertaste of Tuesday night’s loss and get back on the winning track. And back to .500.

After their meltdown to the Wild, a team playing the final period of back-to-back, the Bruins have to look at themselves in the mirror and start playing a 60-minute game consistently. It’s been two-steps forward, one-step back with this team, and with the very beatable Sabres up tonight, there are no excuses: the Bruins must beat Buffalo.

Buffalo is a terrible hockey club that's in full-blown tank mode. They manage to out-suck themselves game after game, with their most recent outing ending as a 4-0 shutout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a game in which Buffalo managed to get register only 10 shots on goal the entire contest. 10.

The God-awful Sabres are the perfect opponent for the Bruins to pull themselves off the mat after getting KO’d by Minnesota’s three-goal outburst, and the Black and Gold have to play a carbon-copy game that matches the 4-0 win against these Sabres two weekends ago

If the Bruins drop this game tonight, giving them the benefit of the doubt is over. Finishing the first month of hockey two games under .500 and with a loss to the Sabres is simply unacceptable for a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations.

Here are the lines that Claude Julein used in practice yesterday, as the B’s held an optional skate this afternoon in the arena, which means that these lines will more than likely stick for tonight's game. That is until Julien falls back on his tried and true ways and reverts back to the old combos midway through the contest.

Backup Niklas Svedberg will get the start, and winger Brad Marchand, who left yesterday’s session with a “tweak,” is a game-time decision for:

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Seth Griffith

Chris Kelly – P. Bergeron – Simon Gagne

Matt Fraser –C. Soderberg – Loui Eriksson

Dan Paille – Greg Campbell – Reilly Smith

Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton

Adam McQuaid – Matt Bartkowski

Zach Trotman – David Warsofsky

Nicklas Svedberg

Tuukka Rask





[photo via www.nhl.com]









