While the Sabres would ideally like to wait until both Zach Bogosian and Marco Scandella return from their injuries before dealing from their surplus of defensemen, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News suggests that GM Jason Botterill may need to expedite that timetable. Buffalo has reached the three-goal mark just once in their last seven games and not surprisingly, they’ve won just one in that span and have dropped out of the top three in the Atlantic Division. With a lack of secondary scoring threats at the moment, they may not be able to afford to wait to see if things turn around. The Sabres have a tough stretch coming up with 10 games in 17 days starting on Thursday and if their offensive struggles continue, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Buffalo turn some of their defensive depth into scoring help.
More from the Atlantic Division:
- While the Bruins got wingers Par Lindholm and Joakim Nordstrom back for today’s game against Philadelphia, NBC Sports Boston’s Joe Haggerty reports that winger Jake DeBrusk will likely miss another week and appears to be targeting Saturday for a return date. He sustained his lower-body injury back on Tuesday against Montreal. DeBrusk is off to a bit of a quiet start offensively with three goals in his first 15 games in the final season of his entry-level contract.
- The Senators were hoping to have center Logan Brown available for Monday’s rematch against Carolina but Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch notes (Twitter link) that he has yet to be cleared for contact. However, he did accompany the team on the road trip and he hasn’t been ruled out for Wednesday’s contest against New Jersey. Brown’s upper-body injury sustained last week certainly came at an inopportune time as he was holding his own in his first recall of the season following some strong comments from his agent back in October.