Sabres vs Lightning
- Dan Carlin
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
The Tampa Bay Lightning take on Tage Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night in Tampa February 3rd for a 7:30 pm ET puck drop. The Lightning enter Tuesday night’s game fresh off a great game against the Boston Bruins at the stadium series. The Buffalo Sabres will enter off a back to back meeting with the Florida Panthers on Monday February 2. The Lightning are 35-14-4 on the season placing them in 1st place of the Atlantic Division. The Buffalo Sabres are 31-18-5 this season placing them in 5th place of the Atlantic Division. Buffalo is currently in a wildcard spot which would be the first time they make the playoffs since the 2010-2011 season.
This will be the first game this season between the Sabres and Lightning. Dating back to last season, Lightning versus Sabres game are always close games in terms of delivery. The Sabres are coached very well Lindy Ruff and have some great players on their team from top to bottom. I’ve been waiting for them to take the next step of their development . They have the talent across their roster it’s all about putting it together and sustaining a team that’s bound for a successful playoff run this season.
So let’s talk about some of the talent that make the Buffalo Sabres special to watch night in and night out this season. Tage Thompson is a great player for them and continues to make them a better team. I’m glad to see him finally get the recognition he rightfully deserves by making the Team USA Olympic team it was well overdue since not being called for the four nations tournament last year. Alex Tuch is another guy on this team that is a great player with tremendous speed and a great scoring touch. He’s another guy that’s going to receive a nice paycheck when he possibly hits free agency this summer. Rasmus Dahlin is very great defenseman who can play with physicality at times which is not something that stands out in his game because he’s more known for his scoring ability. However I think what has helped them is identifying their weaknesses which is they lacked physicality and saw their star players getting ran over and their being no response to those hits. The Sabres addressed that last season when these teams played each other and Dylan Cozens who was on the Sabres at the refuaed to help his teammates in a scrum.
The Lightning and Sabres will be without the following players tomorrow night:
Lightning
Brayden Point (Lower Body)
Emil Lilleberg (Undisclosed)
Anthony Cirelli (Stinger) day to day
Charle Edourard D’Astous (Lower Body)
Sabres
Josh Norris (Ribs)
Conor Timmins (Lower Body)
Jordan Greenway (Abdomen) Questionable
Ukko Pekka Luukkonen (Lower Body)
Jacob Bryson (Upper Body)
The goaltending should be interesting for Tuesday night’s game in Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy should get the start against the Buffalo Sabres. Vasilevskiy enters with a 25-7 record , a .919 save percentage and a 2.12 goals against average this season. If I were to guess on who’s going to be in net for the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow night it’s most likely Colten Ellis. Colten Ellis is 7-4 on the season rides a .898 save percentage and a 3.05 goals against average.
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