NHL Preview: Ottawa and Buffalo Do Battle in Key Northeast Division Clash

OTTAWA SENATORS (39-30-5) at BUFFALO SABRES (40-22-10)

NHL hockey betting lines:

Moneyline — Ottawa 2.30, Buffalo 1.67

Over/Under: 5 goals. Over: 1.71, Under 2.20

What to expect: The Sabres have a healthy lead over the Senators in the Northeast Division — seven points — but Ottawa has had Buffalo’s number this year when it comes to head-to-head matchups. The Sens have taken all four games this year, including the most recent contest, a 4-2 Ottawa win at the HSBC Arena.

The biggest matchup for tonight will be in goal, where the white-hot Brian Elliott takes on one of the NHL’s best netminders in Buffalo’s Ryan Miller. Elliott has had a solid year in net for the Sens, but has been extra special recently. After allowing six goals to Atlanta on March 18, Elliott hasn’t given up another — he is currently on a 143:43 shutout streak.  Miller, meanwhile, looks to be the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy based on his stellar play throughout the regular season — he comes into this contest boasting a 37-15-8 record with a sparkling .929 save percentage and a 2.20 goals against average. Oh, and since we were already speaking about Elliott’s shutout streak, we should also mention that Miller is amongst the league leaders in clean sheets too — he’s got five shutouts on the year.

Buffalo will need a strong performance from their ace netminder tonight, because the team is quite shorthanded due to injury. Defenseman Henrik Tallinder (head) is listed as doubtful while forwards Raffi Torres (upper body) and Patrick Kaleta (neck) are both questionable. Those are tough losses up front for a Sabres team that doesn’t have a lot of depth offensively — Torres was Buffalo’s big acquisition at the trade deadline and this injury has only hampered what’s been an already slow start with his new team.

For Ottawa, it’s largely expected that captain Daniel Alfredsson will once again carry the scoring load. The Swede has seven points in his last five games and continues to be the one constant producer that the Senators have up front. Jason Spezza has traditionally been strong against the Sabres (five points in two games this year) but his offense has dried up lately.

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