USA Today sports
By Brandon J. Koch
The Buffalo Sabres look to rebound tonight after thier opening night loss in the shootout 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens Thursday.
Buffalo is in Brooklyn to face the New York Islanders for thier home opener. They lost in Columbus 5-0 last night.
Only one change in the lineup, Jordan Nolan is scratched along with Josh Gorges. So that means Matt Moulson makes his season debut on the 4th line.
The blue and gold generated 45 shots Thursday night, but really didn’t challenge Carey Price. That’s something Phil Housley wants to see more: “It was a great step in the right direction as far as our shot mentality, but I thought there were a lot of times that Carey Price saw the puck too much and we’ve addressed that and worked on other options. Moving forward we’ve got to continue to shoot, but we’ve got to create a second and third opportunity off that shot.”
New York of course has John Tavares, he had 4 shots last night. The Islanders are also giving Andrew Ladd big money to produce, so he’s someone else to watchout for around the net and a key shooter. They acquired Jordan Eberle in the offseason and Matthew Barzal. New York is deeper than in previous seasons, a tough test for Buffalo tonight.
The Islanders didn’t have a morning skate. So I don’t know what the lineup will be for them. Head coach Doug Weight said this after last nights loss: “That’s why we have a deep lineup… Sure, I would expect some changes.”
Both goaltenders Halak and Griess played last night as well.
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