Need to Know: Bruins at Sabres

BUFFALO - The Bruins will be aiming for a clean sweep of their three-game set with the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night at KeyBank Center. Boston, also looking for its seventh consecutive victory, has opened up an eight-point lead over the New York Rangers for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division and is just four points back of Washington for first place.
"You've got to sort of ramp it up, and I think teams use this time now," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said of the intensity beginning to pick up around the league with the Stanley Cup Playoffs approaching. "Then maybe once we're in, or solidified a little more, we use the last week differently. But yes, this is the final quarter of the season. I always thought there was another level that games go to.
"That's why some teams start to fall off and other teams really start to separate themselves towards the top of the standings. You've seen a little bit of that in our division."

Tuukka Rask will get the start between the pipes, while Kevan Miller will return to the lineup after missing the last five games with an undisclosed injury. Connor Clifton will be the odd man out on the back end.
"He's supposed to stay out of back-to-back games, so it was either going to be last night or tonight," Cassidy said of Miller's return. "We expect him to go in Sunday against Pittsburgh, we expect to play Tuesday against Pittsburgh. It's the back-to-backs that were the issue.
"He had something else going on that took a little while to calm down. That's why he missed the last number of games. Previous injury had nothing to do with it. We are gonna manage his days on the ice, but once the puck drops, he's gonna play.
"There's no, 'Well, we're gonna keep him at 18 minutes versus 22. It depends on the situation, depends on time and score…I expect him to play the next three games for us because there's days in between."

Shot-First Mentality

Cassidy estimated on Friday morning that roughly 75-80% of the Bruins' traveling party (players, coaches, and staff) has received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The B's bench boss noted that part of Boston's slow start on Thursday was the result of some players feeling fatigued after receiving their shots on Tuesday night.
"Some guys had less adverse effects than others," said Cassidy. "A few guys were fatigued a little bit. We knew that might happen. But we want to get the players vaccinated as quickly as possible - everyone that travels, specifically, so that we can at least reduce it in-house so we don't have to shut down.
"For everyone's family's sake, for society, we want to get everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible. But if we can get it done internally around us, it sure helps with some continuity with the season.
"That's the chance you take whenever you do it that you might have a reaction. But I think that's behind us now, I hope."

Opposing View

Per the Sabres, goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, a second-round pick of Buffalo in 2017, will make his NHL debut for the Sabres. The 22-year-old Finland native, who checks in at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, posted a 7-5-2 record with a .888 save percentage and 3.60 goals against average for AHL Rochester this season.

By The Numbers

• David Pastrnak is two goals shy of 200 for his NHL career.
• The Bruins visit the Sabres tonight in the sixth of eight games between these teams this season and the fourth and final game at KeyBank Center.
• Boston is concluding its seventh of nine sets of back-to-back games. The B's are currently 4-2-1 in the first game of those sets and 3-3-0 in the second games.

Friday's Projected Lineup

FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall - David Krejci - Craig Smith
Nick Ritchie - Charlie Coyle - Jake DeBrusk
Sean Kuraly - Curtis Lazar - Chris Wagner
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Mike Reilly - Kevan Miller
Jeremy Lauzon - Steven Kampfer
GOALIES
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak