Preview: Sabres host Canadiens to begin the season


Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

By Brandon J. Koch

The Buffalo Sabres start the 2017-18 season against the Montreal Canadiens. 
Tonight is the start of the Phil Housley era, you can bet he is excited. “I’m excited too. I think guys have worked tremendously hard through camp and I think the guys are in a good place, I think they’re going to be ready to play when the puck drops and when it does, everybody is going to be excited and we’ve just got to control those emotions.”

Sabres lines and pairings this morning: 

Kane – Eichel- Pominville 

Pouliot- O’Reilly -Okposo

Girgensons-Reinhart -Griffith

Larsson-Josefson-Nolan

Pairings:

Beaulieu & Ristolainen

McCabe & Antipin

Scandella & Tennyson

It’s going to be interesting watching this team tonight with all the new pieces. A revamped defense core and additions to lines. 

Matt Moulson and Josh Gorges are healthy scratches and Zach Bogosian is injured. That’s a little over 14 million in cap space on the Sabres roster. 

Montreal is built around thier goaltender, Carey Price. He’s one of if not the best goalie in the league. The Sabres need to get pucks at him early and get in his way. If price gets in a grove, it could be a struggle for the Sabres offense. 

Here’s what you can expect the Canadiens lineup tonight. 

Pacioretty – Drouin – Gallagher

Hudon – Plekanec – Lehkonen

Galchenyuk – Danault – Shaw

Byron – De La Rose – Hemsky

Mete – Weber 
Alzner – Petry

Benn – Streit 

Drouin is making his Canadiens debut. He could be a dangerous player with Pacioretty and Gallagher. And then of course there’s always Shea Weber, we all know what he can do. 

Join John and I for the first Sabre-report of the season after the game. We’ll talk about Jack Eichel, Jason Pominville, the revamped defense and the bottom six. 

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