After a false start on Josh Norris’s original return date, the Sabres’ number one center will make his debut tonight against the Winnipeg Jets tonight in Buffalo. The Sabres, at 10-11-4, have yet another chance to get to .500 and hopefully stay above that mark for the duration of the season.
It appears Lindy Ruff will load up the top line and flank Norris with Zach Benson and Tage Thompson. Ruff seemingly has little patience for Thompson at center despite the fact that Thompson had his highest scoring output this season when Ruff had Thompson centering Josh Doan and Alex Tuch.
Here’s the complete lines as of this morning:
Benson-Norris-Thompson
Doan-Ostlund-Tuch
Zucker-McLeod-Quinn
Greenway-Krebs-Malenstyn
Dahlin-Samuelsson
Power-Bryson
Byram-Timmins
Opting to centralize their talent with Thompson and Norris on the top line together is a gamble considering there is only one puck for the two shooters to share a given time. Putting Tuch with Norris and bumping Thompson down to line two would have allowed the team to spread out the scoring more evenly in theory, although, again, Ruff seems dead set against playing Thompson at center if he has any other alternative available.
In net, it’ll be Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, which is somewhat of a surprise considering Colten Ellis got the win in Minnesota on Saturday. The Sabres had been using a “make it, take it” approach to their goalies whereby the winning goalie would play the next game, but that won’t be the case here.
All three Sabres goalies now have a save percentage under .900 and one has to wonder if the rotation is beginning to effect their ability to get into a rhythm when starts are so sporadic and unpredictable. Alex Lyon now has zero wins in his last six games and his save percentage has dipped to .899 after starting the season on an absolute heater when he was playing more often. There is seemingly no end in sight to this situation and it almost feels like the Sabres are waiting for a real stinker from either Lyon or Ellis that would give them cover to either trade or waive one of them.
Perhaps tonight’s game will offer some more clarity on that front.
.png){kind=spacer}