Game 40: Boston Bruins vs Buffalo Sabres, Lines, Preview

The new-look and revamped Boston Bruins (21-12-6, 48 pts, .615%) will look to bounce back from their worst loss of the season, an 8-1 loss to the Washington Capitals Sunday, against the Buffalo Sabres (10-25-6, 26 pts, .317%) Tuesday night at TD Garden.

After acquiring defenseman Mike Reilly from the Ottawa Senators and Taylor Hall and Curtis Lazar from the Sabres Sunday night, The Boston Bruins will also get two defensemen back into their lineup as Charlie McAvoy and Kevan Miller return to the blueline.

Jeremy Swayman (2-1-0, 2.35 GAA, .929 save percentage) will start for the Boston Bruins and Linus Ullmark (9-6-3, 2.64 GAA, .917 save percentage) gets the nod for the visitors.

Bruins Notes

-Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (upper-body) won’t return tonight but the hope is he can make his first start since March 25, on Thursday against the New York Islanders. The Bruins also remain without defensemen Matt Grzelcyk (upper-body) and Brandon Carlo (upper-body), forward Trent Frederic (illness), and Jaro Halak (COVID).

-This is the third of eight games against the Sabres for the Boston Bruins. They play their longtime rivals April 20 and then 22-23 in Buffalo, and April 29 and May 1 in Boston. After going 3-0-0 against the Sabres last season, the Bruins are now 2-0-0 against their normal Atlantic Division and old Adams Division rivals. They beat the Sabres 4-1 on March 18 in Buffalo and then staged a third-period comeback to win 3-2 on March 27 at TD Garden.

–The Bruins’ powerplay went 1-for-4 on Sunday night. They are now 28-for-120 on the man advantage this season. They’re 9th in the NHL with a 23.3-percent success rate.

-The PK had a rare bad night Sunday killing off just three of the Capitals’ six powerplays. However, they remain the best in the NHL with an 85.4 percent success rate. They’ve killed off 119 of 130 powerplay attempts against them this season.

Sabres Notes

-Sabres captain and Chelmsford, MA native Jack Eichel remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Sabres left winger Zemgus Girgensons is out indefinitely with a hamstring injury. . On the blue line, defensemen Will Borgen is out until mid-April with an arm injury, and Jake McCabe is gone for the season with a knee injury. Between the pipes, Carter Hutton is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

-The Sabres powerplay is ranked 13th in the NHL with a 21.6 percent success rate. They’re 22-for-102 on the man advantage.

-The Sabres penalty kill has a 77.6 percent success rate and is ranked 21st in the NHL. They’ve killed off 83 of 107 powerplay attempts against.

Boston Bruins Lines

Forwards:

Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak

Taylor Hall – David Krejci – Craig Smith

Nick Ritchie – Charlie Coyle – Jake DeBrusk

Sean Kuraly/Anton Blidh – Curtis Lazar – Chris Wagner

Defense:

Jeremy Lauzon – Charlie McAvoy

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Mike Reilly – Steven Kampfer

Jakub Zboril – Kevan Miller

Goalies:

Jeremy Swayman

Dan Vladar

Buffalo Sabres Lines

Forwards:

Jeff Skinner – Sam Reinhart – Victor Olofsson

Rasmus Asplund – Casey Mittelstadt – Tage Thompson

Anders Bjork – Dylan Cozens – Arttu Ruotsalainen

Riley Sheahan-Cody Eakin-Kyle Okposo

Defense:

Jacob Bryson- Rasmus Ristolainen

Rasmus Dahlin-Henri Jokiharju

Matt Irwin – Colin Miller

Goalies:

Linus Ullmark

Dustin Tokarski