BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres open a three-game homestand Friday while the visiting Boston Bruins embark on the first of a five-game road trip. The teams meet at First Niagara Center for their third of five matchups this season and the second in a week.

The Sabres won the first game, 7-4, in Boston on Jan. 31 and the Bruins came back to win, 3-1, Sunday in Buffalo. The two teams have become quite familiar with each other in the last week, but will not play each other again until March 31.

Buffalo is coming off its first two-day break since Jan. 22-23 after playing at the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

"We had a good day off. We had a real good practice yesterday, and when we talk about energy level, it should be right at the top," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.

CHICAGO -- Ray Emery will get the start Friday night for the Chicago Blackhawks, but the bigger goaltending story of the day occurred when starter Corey Crawford didn’t participate in the morning skate.

Crawford, who's 7-0-3 with a 1.65 goals-against average, is out with an undisclosed upper-body injury and was listed as day-to-day by Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville after Chicago’s morning skate Friday.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Newly acquired Eric Tangradi will be making his Winnipeg Jets debut Friday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins at MTS Centre, but he will not be the only player in the lineup needing to make a fresh impression on Jets coach Claude Noel.

Noel blistered his team Thursday, telling the local media he did not like the way it played nor the players' effort. Noel's comments followed a busy Wednesday in which the Jets shipped out veteran forward Alexei Ponikarovsky to the New Jersey Devils hours after landing Tangradi. Winnipeg dropped a 3-2 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Philadelphia Flyers forward Sean Couturier, sidelined the past two games with a stomach virus, skated with his team for a second straight day Friday at Prudential Center and is expected to return to the lineup against the New Jersey Devils (7 p.m. ET).

Couturier, who missed the opening two games of Philadelphia's current six-game road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets, has two goals and five points in 12 games. He had 13 goals and 27 points in 77 games for the Flyers as a rookie last season.

The Detroit Red Wings have placed forward Todd Bertuzzi on injured reserve and recalled forward Gustav Nyquist from the American Hockey League, according to a report by MLive.com.

Bertuzzi, who has been bothered by a back problem, has two goals and one assist in seven games this season.

Nyquist is scoreless in one game with the Red Wings this season. He had one goal and six assists in 18 games with them last season.

Ed Jovanovski

Defense - FLA

GOALS: 0 | ASST: 1 | PTS: 1
SOG: 6 | +/-: -2

Jovanovski skated prior to the team's practice Friday.

The captain and veteran blueliner has missed the past seven games. He hasn't played since early in the third period of a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Jan. 29.

In five games this season, Jovanovski has one assist and a minus-2 rating.

The Anaheim Ducks announced Friday that goalie Jonas Hiller will miss his third straight game due to a lower-body injury.

Hiller last played Feb. 8, when he was injured late in the first period of a game against the Dallas Stars. He was replaced for the final two periods of that game by Viktor Fasth, who will make his third straight start when the Ducks play Friday at the Detroit Red Wings.

According to the Ducks' official Twitter account, coach Bruce Boudreau said that while Hiller has shown improvement, he isn't ready to get back into the lineup. Jeff Deslauriers will serve as Fasth's backup.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky returned to the ice for the New Jersey Devils during Friday's morning skate at Prudential Center and will be in the lineup against the Philadelphia Flyers (7 p.m. ET).

Ponikarovsky, acquired by the Devils on Wednesday in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a pair of draft picks -- a 2013 seventh-round pick and a 2014 fourth-round selection -- arrived in New Jersey on Thursday. He'll wear No. 12 and begin the game skating on the top line, with center Travis Zajac and right wing Ilya Kovalchuk.

It's Ponikarovsky's second stint with the Devils. The team acquired him in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2012, and he had 18 points in 33 regular-season games, and a goal and eight assists in 24 Stanley Cup Playoff games. During the playoffs, he often skated on a line with Zajac and Kovalchuk

He signed with the Jets in July, and had two goals in 12 games.

"It's not too much time gone by [since I last played with the Devils] and it should be not too tough for me to fit in again," Ponikarovsky said. "What did I think when I got the news that I'd be coming back? I knew the team and system of the team I would be coming to play for and it was a feeling like I kind of never left."

The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled goaltender Henrik Karlsson from the American Hockey League.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that goaltender Corey Crawford is not with the team for the morning skate. The Blackhawks, the only team in the League without a regulation loss, host the San Jose Sharks Friday (8:30 p.m. ET, NHLN-US).

Karlsson, 29, is 2-2-0 with a 2.33 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in four AHL games the Rockford IceHogs.

Karlsson was acquired by the Blackhawks from the Calgary Flames last month for a 2013 seventh-round draft pick.

At 11:14 of the second period in the Islanders/Rangers game, video review supported the referee's call on the ice that Carl Hagelin's shot completely crossed the goal line. Good Goal Rangers.