New Jersey Devils travel to play Buffalo Sabres – NHL Preview
After facing two straight defeats on the home ice, New Jersey Devils are now travelling to play Buffalo Sabres in a National Hockey League (NHL) game on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, at First Niagara Center, Buffalo, New York.
The Devils might face a tough challenge as Buffalo, despite being down in the conference ranking, is fighting hard to stay among the playoff contenders.
Buffalo has shown drastic improvement in its offence during the last few games and if it builds on the momentum, the Devils could get in trouble.
Also, New Jersey is on a two-game losing streak before which the Devils were on a five-game winning run.
Devils gave a tough competition to St. Louis Blues before losing, but Florida Panthers completely overpowered Devils.
Devils got in front after scoring a goal in the second minute of the first period, but Panthers scored a goal each in every period to secure the victory.
Devils’ coach, Peter DeBoer, blamed the tough schedule for the loss. He said:
"I think we came out well in the first 10 minutes. I think it was a combination of a couple things.”
The coach added that:
“We're playing our seventh game in 11½ days (and) I think we ran out of gas. On the other side, I thought Florida did a good job of bottling us up. I think it was a combination of those two things. We just couldn't generate."
New Jersey is ranked at sixth spot in the Eastern Conference with 66 points after 55 games.
On the other hand, Buffalo is ranked at 13th spot in the same conference with 54 points after 55 games, but it still cannot be considered an underdog for the game.
Buffalo’s three-game winning run was snapped by Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Sabres were terrible offensively and scored their only goal of the game in the final period, when Tampa Bay was already leading by two goals.
Sabres’ coach, Lindy Ruff, said after the loss:
"We played one period, but one period is not good enough. I was glad to see at least we came out in the third with some determination to try to make a difference."
Buffalo should perform very well on its offence against Devils if it wants a win.
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