Buffalo Sabres at Tampa Bay Lightning
Buffalo has essentially pressed the restart button on the franchise and have dealt Ryan Miller, Steve Ott, Matt Moulson, Jaroslav Halak (out of the Miller trade), and prospect Brayden McNabb. A team can only withstand so much loss and the Sabres are gutted for the rest of the season. They have won three of four games since the break but have been outshot by 61 shots in those games, an average of 15 per game. Not only is the team gutted, it’s playing pretty poor defensively and are relying on their Jhonas Enroth to save 30-40 shots every game or they are toast.
Tampa Bay got some good news and some bad news yesterday. Starting with the bad news, they had to trade away their franchise leader in points with Martin St. Louis after he demanded a trade and got New York’s Ryan Callahan in return. The good news is they found out that Steven Stamkos will return after missing nearly four months with a shattered shin. Even with the loss of St. Louis, this is still a very good possession team that should crush the Sabres on the shot clock tonight.
Tampa won the first two games against Buffalo by 3-2 scores but got their heads caved in the shot department by a differential of 28 in those two games. Goalies can stop 35 shots a night but they can’t be expected to do it every single night. Enroth has been playing well enough that I won’t stack Tampa Bay but I certainly won’t be taking any Sabres.
Keep an eye as to which line Callahan lands on, it’s not a given he plays on the top line with Stamkos, either.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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Drew Stafford $7616 |
(TBL) $8620 |
Tyler Johnson $6698 |
Victor Hedman $9314 |
(TBL) $5422 |
