Friday Night Fights: Boston Bruins Vs Buffalo Sabres 7:00PM EST

Feb 10, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17) and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Andrej Sekera (44) fight for position in front of goalie Ryan Miller (30) at the First Niagara Center. Bruins beat the Sabres 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Its time to make the Buffalo Sabres (5-8-1) relevant for another night as tonight they take on the Boston Bruins (8-1-2) in the second-most populous city in the great state of New York (that would be Buffalo incase you’ve never been on their Wikipedia page).

The Sabres are coming off a shutout loss to the Ottawa Senators and have lost 5 of their last 7, so they will be looking to get back on track at home against a Bruins team that they’ve had some unfriendly exchanges (on and off the ice) with recently.

Now this shouldn’t surprise anyone, after all they are in the same division and Buffalo brought in some players in the offseason to add some grit and sandpaper to their lineup. There’s no denying they’re a tougher team with more size this season, but so far it hasn’t helped out much in the wins/loss columns.

The Bruins on the other hand are coming off a heartbreaking shootout loss to the New York Rangers. Most of the time people aren’t very happy with a shootout loss, however when the B’s are down 3-0 to the Rangers headed into the 3rd with Henrik Lundqvist in net and they manage to rally back and salvage a point, you tend to allow a little space for a moral victory.

Tonight they start a 5-game road trip and will look to get that trip off on the right foot with a win. The B’s have already had some pretty good early season success on the road, going 4-0-1 in their first 5 road games and one of those wins was in Buffalo. So, the B’s have shown they’re capable of winning on the road and in Buffalo.

I’d look for Ryan Miller to get the nod for the Sabres in net and for Anton Khudobin to get the start for the Bruins as starter Tuukka Rask is 0-2-1 against the Sabres in his last four starts against them with an unsavory 3.62 goals against average. He’s even been pulled and replaced in two of those last four appearances. That’s ugly and some of the blame goes on the B’s as at times early in the season they’ve had long periods of lackluster defensive play, something you don’t usually see from a Claude Julien coached team.

Even with Rask’s struggles the Bruins have won three of the last four against the Sabres and should improve on that record tonight.