GAME DAY: Buffalo Sabres @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - Sat. Mar. 7th, 2009

The Sabres roll into town tonight to face the slightly tweaked, Vermette-less Sens squad. Vanek is back in the line-up for the Sabres and seems to have revived the team.

Starting goalies as per: http://goaliepost.com/
- Ottawa: Elliott (firm)
- Buffalo: Lalime (likely)

TSN's Ice Chips: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11009

Game Day info from the Ottawa Sun: http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2009/03/07/8660651-sun.html

BLACK AND BLUE REPORT

SABRES: G Ryan Miller (ankle), out indefinitely.

SENATORS: C Cody Bass (shoulder surgery), out for the season; RW Chris Neil (calf), out indefinitely, D Alexandre Picard (partially torn knee ligaments), out for the season.

NOTEWORTHY

The Senators are 3-1-0 against the Sabres this season ... Captain Daniel Alfredsson wasn't on the ice yesterday, but he was only being rested and will be fine to play tonight. Alfredsson has 11 points (3 G, 8 A) in his last 11 games ... Expect G Brian Elliott to start after he backstopped the club to a 4-2 victory over the Oilers Thursday. He made 31 stops in a 3-1 win over the Sabres on Feb. 11 at the HSBC Arena ... RW Dany Heatley has recorded points in seven straight games (5 G, 4 A) and has 14 points (9 G, 5 A) in his last 11 games ... D Jason Smith is tied for sixth in the league with 148 blocked shots, while Anton Volchenkov is eighth with 138 ... C Jason Spezza (139 G, 258 A) is three points shy of 400 for his career.

ESPN's Stats Comparison:


Game is on: CBC, RDS (HD), MSG-B

GO SENS GO!!!

Watch out for COnnoly. The Sabres have pretty good depth on the front, but the Sens should definitely match that too, thanks to Clouston.

Elliott with the shootout.

Uh Oh. Vanek is back!? 6-2 Sabres

Elliott gets the nod tonight:

http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2009/03/07/8665711.html

Schubert will be a healthy scratch tonight.

I'm going to this one. Hopefully it's a good game.

asq2 wrote:I'm going to this one. Hopefully it's a good game.

... for the Sabres. I'm fully committed to the tanking efforts in Ottawa.

shabbs wrote:Schubert will be a healthy scratch tonight.

I fell out of my seat, haha.

Watching parts of this one, Buffalo was very strong last night against Phoenix. With Tim Connolly getting two goals, Vanek's return seemed to raise their tempo overall. Pominville and Stafford broke their respective scoring droughts. Dominic Moore plays his 2nd game for Buffalo tonight; it will interesting to see what he brings. In his first, he had two shots on goal and was their strongest faceoff man with a 60% average (the Yotes' new man Matthew Lombardi won 71%). The Sabres played like a team that knows it can't afford to lose another game.

Lalime likely for tonight's tilt. That would make two former goalies in a row if we face Gerber on Tuesday when we play the Leafs.

shabbs wrote:Schubert will be a healthy scratch tonight.

He's still here? Why?

That one boggles the mind for me too pragues. Why keep Schubert around if he can no longer crack the lineup?

Obviously they are keeping Schubert around as they intend to put him on the 1st def pair, to insured that our Donkey gets kicked

Joking aside, he's a healthy scratch. I don't see him and his nearly $1M salary being around next year, yet if they want any hope of dealing him in the summer they'd better give him some ice time.

beedub wrote:Obviously they are keeping Schubert around as they intend to put him on the 1st def pair, to insured that our Donkey gets kicked

Beedub, who's the babe in the maple leaf bikini?
:KKK: