Buffalo Sabres Opening Night Prediction

It was the night before the Buffalo Sabres season started, and all through the town, every single fan was ready to cheer for a win against those Ottawa Senator clowns! Thats right ladies and gentlemen, the NHL regular season is finally upon us and the Buffalo Sabres will be in action tomorrow night against the Ottawa Senators at First Niagara Center. With the final roster list released yesterday, the Buffalo Sabres are making their final preparations. With the season literally a day away, I find myself pondering how the season will start.

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The final roster list for the Buffalo Sabres still has a few players in the IR (Zach Bogosian and Cody McCormick) but it also has a good number of young faces on it. Johan Larsson, Jake McCabe and Mark Pysyk have made the team along with rookie sensations Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, and all of them have some work to do to prove the preseason wasn’t just a fluke.

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So with the roster that was released, the question still lingers as to how opening night may go. The Buffalo Sabres last preseason game had its many flaws, so will we see some of those issues tonight? Will Evander Kane produce? Will O’Reilly be able to handle the pressure of the first line? Will Jack Eichel score another shorthanded goal? So many questions are up in the air for tomorrow night’s game, so here are some of my predictions.

Let’s start with the goaltending and work outwards to the forwards.

Robin Lehner had a shaky preseason to say the least and he will be looked to in tomorrow night’s game to lead his new team to victory against his old team. It’s kind of funny to think that Tim Murray’s new team that he built by himself will be facing off against the old team he helped to build. Robin Lehner was one of those pieces, and he will be looked to. I think that Robin Lehner will have an average night tomorrow evening. He will still be shaking off the cobwebs and will let in 2-3 goals, but thats not too bad to start off.

The defense is still a little thin at the moment, but two players in particular are going to be important to the success of the Sabres tomorrow night. My picks for the the defensive key players are going to be Cody Franson and Mark Pysyk. Franson is going to be a dominant power play force for the Sabres this year and I expect him to start tonight by scoring the first power play goal of the year for them. Mark Pysyk typically goes unnoticed with his defensive style, but tomorrow night he is going to be the top defensive player on the ice.

Now the offense has a lot of things that I want to talk about, but I will focus in on the most important prediction; the play of Jack Eichel. Eichel will be starting in the top six for the Buffalo Sabres opening night and he will be the guy who jump starts the offense right out of the gate. Eichel will finish the night with two points; a goal and an assist.

Mark my words as I am confident in these assessments. The Buffalo Sabres will win their opening night game tomorrow evening. They have worked long and hard all summer and preseason to get to this point and prove that they are in a better place than last year. The players and the coach have something to prove to their GM and their fans. I do not expect to be let down whatsoever.

LET’S GO BUFFALO!

Next: Will Jack Eichel Will The Calder Trophy?

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