Sabres look forward to round one series with Bruins
While the Sabres GM is unfortunately out of town until Friday he has been provided a brief opportunity to prepare for game one against long time rivals the Boston Bruins. It is believed that the team's lines have been submitted in advance in preparation for Thursday's game.
These two teams superficially look quite similar as they tied exactly in points, the Bruins taking home ice advantage on the basis of one additional win. The two teams split the season series 3-3, however Boston won the last 3 games, including a comprehensive beating of the Sabres 9-1 in the last game of the season. The Bruins also scored 30 more goals than the Sabres this year. While the Sabres can be encouraged by their 3 30 goal men Elias, Lupul and Stajan, the Bruins have 5 30 goal men. The Sabres also will look to be lead by defenceman Mike Green, last year's Norris trophy winner. While he had a solid offensive season, both he and fellow offensive Dman Tobias Enstrom struggled often at 5 on 5, but were key members of the Sabres PP, one of the best in the league.
This will be the 3rd time these 2 rivals meet in round 1 of the CPHL playoffs, this is the rubber match as both teams have won a series; most recently the Sabres prevailed 3 seasons ago.
The Sabres rumored lineup for game 1:
Elias Stajan Nolan
Steen Penner Lupul
Lucic Niedermayer Dawes
Bailey Kreps Comrie
Lydman Leopold
Gilbert Enstrom
Leach Green
Rask/Giguere
Sergei Fedorov remains injured heading into the series. Matt Walker, Zenon Konopka and Jay Pandolfo look to be healthy scratches in game 1.
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