Sunday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils look to keep the good times going by defeating the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils won their most recent outing on Wednesday, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers at home.

The Devils are currently 29-18-6, which currently has them third in the Metropolitan division. The Sabres hold a record of 20-26-5, which has them last in the Atlantic Division.

Match Overview

The Devils are in a bit of a groove right now, winning three of their last four, and outscoring their opponents 16 to eight in that span. The Sabres have majorly disappointed this season, sitting six games under the .500 mark and eight points behind the Canadiens for seventh in the Atlantic. However, they have won two in a row, including a 7-2 win against the Boston Bruins last Tuesday. 

The Sabres are running a fairly healthy squad, with the only regular to the lineup that is missing being Jordan Greenway. The Devils on the other hand are struggling with the injury bug. Nico Hischier, Jacob Markstrom, and Erik Haula are all notable names that have been missing. Haula is the closest to returning.

The Devils of course swept their two games earlier in the season against the Sabres in Prague. They are 6-2-0 against them overall since the 2022-23 season.

Lines and Pairings

Devils

Forwards

Palat-Hughes-Bratt

Meier-Mercer-Noesen 

Cotter-Dowling-Tatar

MacDermid-Lazar-Bastian

Defense

Siegenthaler-Hamilton

Hughes-Kovacevic

Dillon-Pesce

Goalies

Allen

Daws

Sabres

Forwards

Peterka-Kulich-Thompson

Zucker-Cozens-Tuch

Benson-McLeod-Quinn

Malenstyn-Krebs-Lafferty

Defense

Byram-Dahlin

Samuelsson-Power

Bryson-Jokiharju

Goalies

Luukkonen

Reimer

Keys to the Game

Holding Off Until Break

As mentioned earlier, the Devils have a plethora of injuries at the moment including key contributors such as Hischier and Markstrom. Luckily, for New Jersey there is a lengthy break coming up in just four games time. If they can get through these next four against Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Vegas, and Montreal, the team should be in much better shape the next time they take the ice.

Daws Recalled

Saturday, Nico Daws was recalled by the Devils to backup Allen for the next week. While Allen will start this afternoon, head coach Sheldon Keefe noted that Daws will get a start in before the break. Daws has played 46 games in his career across two seasons, holding a 19-22-1 record and .894 save percentage (sv%) in those games.

Where to Watch

Sunday’s game is set for a 1:00 pm ET puck drop in Buffalo. It can be seen on MSG SportsNet.