Remember pre-COVID times when the Sens played the Sabres seemingly every Tuesday and Thursday night? That feels like a lifetime ago, as the Senators now face off against Buffalo for the first time in almost two years. Things have changed in some ways with Buffalo shipping off some big names like Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and Rasmus Ristolainen. At the same time, both Ottawa and Buffalo still find themselves closer to the draft lottery than the playoffs so I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Sabres come into this game fresh off a tough loss to the Detroit Red Wings and based on what we saw last night, Buffalo could ice a line-up looking something like this:
Skinner - Thompson - Tuch
Bjork - Eakin - Hayden
Olofsson - Cozens - Asplund
Krebs - Okposo - Hinostroza
Dahlin - Jokiharju
Samuelsson - Pysyk
Butcher - Hagg
With the Sabres playing the latter half of a back-to-back and Ottawa coming off two wins out west, fans in Ottawa have to feel pretty good about the Senators’ chances tonight (even if no fans can attend in person).