Sabres at Bruins preview

SABRES (15-29-10) at BRUINS (33-11-8)
7 p.m. ET; NESN, MSG-B, NHL.TV

Rask is 19-0-2 with a 1.61 goals-against average in his past 22 games (21 starts) and has won a career-high eight straight starts. The Bruins are 18-1-4 in their past 23 games and trail the Tampa Bay Lightning by three points for first place in the Atlantic Division with two games in hand.
Goaltender Chad Johnson will start for the first time in four games for Buffalo, which is 1-3-1 in its past five games. The Sabres will look to extend their road winning streak to four games.

Players to watch

Sabres forward Jack Eichel has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games and 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in his past 13 games.
Bruins forward David Pastrnak has a 10-game point streak (four goals, eight assists).

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They said it

"I think it's been great. We like to think of ourselves as one big family. It started in Buffalo with a big win against the Islanders [on Thursday] and hopefully they can put enough pressure to get a win in Boston here." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley on Buffalo's fathers and mentors trip
"Every pregame pre-scout we talk about what the other team does well, where we think we can do well against certain things. And then we talk about what we need to do. ... [Whoever] the opponent is, we try to focus on our game." -- Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy

Sabres projected lineup

Evan Rodrigues -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Evander Kane -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Kyle Okposo
Scott Wilson -- Johan Larsson -- Jason Pominville
Benoit Pouliot -- Jacob Josefson -- Jordan Nolan
Casey Nelson -- Marco Scandella
Rasmus Ristolainen -- Nathan Beaulieu
Victor Antipin -- Josh Gorges
Chad Johnson
Robin Lehner
Scratched: Justin Falk, Zemgus Girgensons
Injured: Zach Bogosian (lower body), Jake McCabe (thumb)

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Patrice Bergeron -- David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk -- David Krejci -- Ryan Spooner
Danton Heinen -- Riley Nash -- David Backes
Tim Schaller -- Sean Kuraly --
Austin Czarnik
Zdeno Chara -- Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug -- Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk -- Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Paul Postma
Injured: Frank Vatrano (Iower body), Noel Acciari (lower body), Kevan Miller (upper body), Anders Bjork (upper body)

Status report

Wilson will draw into the lineup for Girgensons, who is sick.

Stat pack

Reinhart has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past two games. ... Bergeron has 22 points (14 goals, eight assists) in his past 16 games. ... Josefson will play his 300th NHL game. ... Spooner is one assist away from 100 in his NHL career.