Morning Skate | Tokarski to start, Borgen to return vs. Bruins

Dustin Tokarski will make his fifth straight start in goal for the Sabres against the Boston Bruins on Thursday. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will back up Tokarski and make his NHL debut against the Bruins on Friday, interim head coach Don Granato said.
"I think it's better for UPL to see one more night," Granato said. "It was going to be a split anyway, we felt. Give him another night from the bench. I think that's good. He'll be in there tomorrow, is the plan."
Tokarski made 39 saves in a 2-0 loss to the Bruins on Tuesday. He has a .938 save percentage in his last five games dating back to a shootout loss in Boston on April 13.

The Sabres are looking to rebound from their loss on Tuesday, which snapped a streak of 13 straight games with at least two goals scored. Granato cited the opportunity for a rematch as a measuring stick for his young lineup against a Bruins team expected to contend for the Stanley Cup.
"We didn't make the game simple for ourselves," Granato said. "We complicated simple things, maybe puck placement wasn't good. We didn't put pucks to areas we could pursue and put pressure, more pressure on them. We hope to do that a little better tonight and give ourselves even a better chance to compete harder."

The lineup

Will Borgen will play for the first time since having surgery to repair a fracture in his right arm in February. He will replace Colin Miller, a healthy scratch, on a pair with Jacob Bryson.
The addition of Borgen, 24, injects even more youth into an already young defense corps. The average age of the six Sabres defensemen on Thursday is 22, the eldest being 26-year-old Rasmus Ristolainen. Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Mattias Samuelsson are all 21.
Here is the full projected lineup based on Wednesday's practice:
53 Jeff Skinner -23 Sam Reinhart - 68 Victor Olofsson
74 Rasmus Asplund - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 72 Tage Thompson
96 Anders Bjork - 24 Dylan Cozens - 25 Arttu Ruotsalainen
13 Tobias Rieder - 15 Riley Sheahan - 91 Drake Caggiula
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 10 Henri Jokiharju
54 Mattias Samuelsson - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
78 Jacob Bryson - 3 William Borgen
31 Dustin Tokarski
1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Scouting the Bruins

Boston won its fifth straight game with the 2-0 victory over Buffalo on Tuesday, which saw Tuukka Rask earn his first shutout of the season with a 32-save shutout.
The Bruins will turn to rookie Jeremy Swayman in goal on Thursday, coming off a 25-save performance against the Islanders for his first career shutout on April 16.
David Pastrnak enters the contest riding a four-game point streak, with one goal and six assists in that span. He tallied an assist on Brad Marchand's goal to open the scoring Tuesday.

Tune in

Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. Radio coverage can be found on WGR 550. Puck drop is at 7.