Wild, Sabres on different ends of spectrum heading into clash
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Minnesota Wild are basking in the glow of their most dominant and complete victory of the young NHL season, while the Buffalo Sabres are left wondering about the one that got away.
The teams meet at 7 p.m. in Buffalo on Thursday night. On Tuesday, Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves in a 5-0 victory over the Boston Bruins. The Wild (4-2-1) took full advantage of a depleted Bruins roster that was missing its top two goalies.
"It was really good," Boudreau said of Dubnyk, according to the Wild's team website. "He was sharp, he had great movement, followed the puck well, and that's what good goaltending's all about."
Dubnyk is off to a solid start to the year, posting a 3-1-1 record along with a save percentage of .929.
Five different players scored for the Wild in the blowout victory, which is looking for more balanced efforts on the score sheet moving forward.
"It's great balance, which you need ... if you can have balanced scoring in this league, then every line becomes a dangerous line," Boudreau said. "And that's what we're striving for."
Defenseman Ryan Suter leads the Wild in points with seven (two goals, five assists) through seven games.
The Sabres jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in Philadelphia on Tuesday only to see that lead slip away due to penalties and poor play. Buffalo eventually lost 4-3 in a shootout.
"If we want to be a good team, if we want to be a winning team, this is a game where we have to learn a lesson from with how we played, have to learn a lesson with how we're going to play going forward and one we should never let happen again," Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma said.
"I remember blowing a lot of two, three-goal leads on the island three, four years ago," said Sabres newcomer Kyle Okposo, according to the Sabres' team website. Okposo joined the Sabres this season from the New York Islanders. "It's not fun to do that. At the same time, once you kind of figure out everything you need to do to keep those leads it just becomes of habit and you kind of do it automatically. I think we're gonna learn from this and hopefully come out better on the other side."
It remains to be seen if the Sabres will get starting goaltender Robin Lehner back in time to face the Wild. Lehner did not make the trip to Philadelphia due to an illness.
"This is our fourth guy that's gotten ill and it's all kind of been about the same amount of time, about a two-day window," Bylsma said, according to the Sabres' team website. "Robin's just a shade over those two days now. Hopefully he'll start feeling better here today. We'll see going forward in terms of him coming back to the ice."
If Lehner can't go, Anders Nilsson will likely receive his second consecutive start.