Sharpen Up: December 3, 2016

It's not often a player is recalled from junior 23 games into the NHL season to make his League debut. But it looks like that'll be the case today with defenseman Brendan Guhle.
Here's what you need to know.

The Sabres are a banged up bunch on the blue line. Zach Bogosian (sprained MCL) and Dmitry Kulikov (lower back) are out long term and Josh Gorges injured his foot during Thursday's win over the Rangers. Gorges missed practice on Friday and was going to get further medical attention, making the emergency recall of Guhle yesterday necessary.
Guhle has scored three goals in four games since being acquired by Prince George of the WHL on Nov. 19. In 19 games for the Cougars and Prince Albert Raiders this season, he has seven points (5+2) and 10 penalty minutes.
Drafted by the Sabres in the second round (51st overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft, the Sherwood Park, Alberta native has compiled 77 points (20+57) and 128 penalty minutes in 205 career WHL games.
Here's what our friend Kris Baker of SabresProspects.com had to say about Guhle:

Take a look at this end-to-end goal from a few weeks ago:

He was impressive in last year's training camp and was one of the last cuts this year. We'll hear from coach Dan Bylsma in a little bit about what we can expect from Guhle and other lineup news.

More from the blue line

The defense took a combined 27 shot attempts in the 4-3 win over the Rangers. Jourdon LaBarber has more on the five-man attack in the Ice Level Practice Report.

"I think it's indicative of where we played," Bylsma said following the team's practice at HarborCenter on Friday. "We played in the offensive zone. We really have noticed peaks in our game when our defensemen are getting involved and when they're getting shots from the point … It was really our best five-man [effort] and the shot attempts from our D-men are indicative of that."

Today's matchup

Robin Lehner is expected to start in net. He has faced Boston more times than any other NHL team. In 14 career games against the Bruins, he has logged a .923 save percentage and a 2.74 goals-against average.
The Bruins are coming off a 2-1 shootout win over Carolina on Thursday.
This is the second of four meetings between the Sabres and Bruins this season. Back on Nov. 7, the Sabres got into penalty trouble and Boston defeated won 4-0 at TD Garden.
The Sabres enter today's game with a 4-1-1 record in their last six games and a 3-0-1 record in their last four home games. Jack Eichel has been on fire at home recently. He has 12 points (7+5) in his last 10 games played at KeyBank Center and points in a career-best seven straight games played (4+6) overall.

On tap today

We'll have full game day coverage today. If you can't make it to the game, tune into the TOPS Game Night (Game Day?) pregame show starting at 12:30 p.m. on MSG.
Then stick with us for full postgame highlights, interviews and reaps. Should be a good one.