Buffalo Sabres head north to Montreal to face the Canadiens

The Buffalo Sabres get back at it tonight after a few days off to battle Atlantic Division foes the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

The Buffalo Sabres are looking for a repeat from their last game with the Montreal Canadiens when they won their third game in a row and beat the Canadiens 4-3 at the KeyBank Center last month.

Since that win, the Sabres have lost 4 of 5 games. Despite the recent losing spate, the Sabres have still played overall good hockey. 2 of the losses were in overtime and the other 2 losses were close games in which the Sabres allowed an empty net goal.

The Sabres are hoping to bounce back after a tough loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday. Carter Hutton allowed 2 quick goals to start the 2nd period and the Sabres were never able to recover despite outshooting the Rangers 40-24.

Linus Ullmark will be making his fifth start of the year tonight. Ullmark is 3-0-1 and has played very impressively in each start with the exception of the overtime loss to Ottawa in which he allowed 5 goals. From Paul Hamilton:

“I just thought we’ve won one game in regulation in our last five and we lost our last game although I thought Carter played well, so I wanted to give Linus an assignment for tonight.” – Head Coach Phil Housley

The biggest changes for the club tonight will be on defense as Nathan Beaulieu will return to the lineup. Beaulieu was poised to have a rebound year after struggling mightily last year however this season did not go as planned and Beaulieu has only played in 8 of the Sabres’ 14 games.

In his 8 games, Nathan Beaulieu has only goal and has averaged fewer than 15 minutes of ice time per game. Beaulieu, who has primarily been paired with Zach Bogosian and Casey Nelson, will be paired with rookie phenom Rasmus Dahlin. Dahlin has been playing very well which will hopefully ease some of the pressure Beaulieu.

Casey Nelson will not be in the lineup tonight in order to make room for Nathan Beaulieu.

The forward lines will remain mostly the same. The only notable change is Sam Reinhart and Kyle Okposo flipping lines.

One of the most productive line in the NHL over the last couple of weeks will obliviously stay together. Jack Eichel, Jeff Skinner, and Jason Pominville have been tearing it up of late. The trio have registered points in every game they have played together with the exception of Sunday’s loss to the Rangers.

After tonight’s road game the Buffalo Sabres return home for a couple of games against the Vancouver Canucks and a divisional matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tonight’s game is at 7:30 and can be seen on MSG and heard on WGR 550.