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Buffalo Sabres Face Minnesota In First Preseason Tilt

By Melissa Kania

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The Buffalo Sabres open their seven-game preseason schedule Monday evening as they visit the Minnesota Wild for an 8 p.m. tilt that will be available on radio only.

Jack Eichel is expected to make his Buffalo Sabres debut on Monday. He’ll play against the Wild, and will be expected to earn the rest of his playing time as the preseason continues.

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Another player making his “debut” with Buffalo: goaltender Chad Johnson, who will start in net on Monday. Johnson will be backed up by Nathan Lieuwen, and it’s expected that the pair will split time in net.

Of course, Monday’s game will also mark Dan Bylsma‘s first time behind the bench as Buffalo Sabres head coach.

Other players expected to be in Monday’s lineup for Buffalo: Matt Moulson and Zemgus Girgensons.

The team hits the ice at 12:30 p.m. EST for a game-day skate, so it’s likely we’ll know more about the roster after that, but it’s expected that the Sabres will dress 10 veterans this evening.

UPDATE: WGR550’s Paul Hamilton Tweeted that the Sabres have 13 forwards and eight defensemen on the roster sheet for tonight’s game.

According to Hamilton, the forwards are: Johan Larsson, Matt Moulson, Zemgus Girgensons, Matt Ellis, Jack Eichel, Justin Kea, Nicolas Deslauriers, William Carrier, Justin Bailey, Jean Dupuy, Vaclav Karabacek, Marcus Foligno and Philip Varone.

Defensemen listed are Mark Pysyk, Chad Ruhwedel, Mike Weber, Jake McCabe, Brendan Guhle, Cody Franson, Matt Donovan and Brady Austin.

On the other side of things, we know quite a bit already about what Minnesota’s lineup will look like on Monday evening.

Darcy Kuemper will start in goal, and will likely play the entire game. Niklas Backstrom will act as his back-up, but won’t play unless needed – as he’s scheduled to play on Tuesday in Winnipeg.

Minnesota’s top line features Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville, while its second line will feature Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter.

Also playing: a line of Ruslan Fedotenko, Tyler Graovac and Zack Mitchell, and the fourth line of Brady Brassart, Kurtis Gabriel and invite Matt Carey.

On defense, it’ll be Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin and Christian Folin. Mike Reilly will make his debut, paired with either Nate Prosser or Tyson Strachan – seemingly the only uncertainty in Minnesota’s lineup heading into tonight’s game.

Regardless of how things go tonight, the most interesting part might come after the 60 minutes end, as the teams will skate in a 3-on-3 overtime period. That’ll happen regardless of the score at the end of the third, giving both teams a chance to test out the NHL’s new overtime format before the regular season.

Tonight’s game will be available on WGR550 radio at 8 p.m., with Dan Dunleavy and Andrew Peters giving the call. Neither the Sabres nor the Wild have any TV/streaming broadcasts of tonight’s game.

Tonight’s meeting with the Wild is the first of seven preseason games for the Buffalo Sabres. Later this week, they’ll host Ottawa on Wednesday before visiting Toronto and Ottawa in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday nights. Next Tuesday, the Leafs will head into town.

The Sabres close out the preseason with a pair of games on October 1 and 2, visiting Minnesota again before the Blue Jackets come to town.

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