Sabres at Bruins
The Boston Bruins have lost only once in regulation in the last nine games but their hold on the second wild card in the Eastern Conference is becoming more precarious by the day. The Bruins look to bounce back from a loss at the Washington Capitals when they host the league-worst Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. Boston's lead for the final playoff slot has been sliced to five points over the Ottawa Senators, who have a game in hand and will host the Bruins on Thursday night.
A 2-0 loss at Washington denied Boston its sixth straight win in a span of nine days and allowed the Capitals to move ahead of the Bruins for the top wild card. "I thought we had a decent game for a back-to-back and the amount of games we've played lately," forward Brad Marchand said. "It was disappointing to give up those two points and we'll just have to regroup for Tuesday." Buffalo has dropped four in a row against Boston and is mired in a seven-game skid (0-5-2) overall.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports
ABOUT THE SABRES (19-43-7): Buffalo has not mailed it in, sandwiching a pair of 4-3 shootout losses around a 2-0 defeat to the New York Rangers that was scoreless through two periods. Cody Hodgson, a 20-goal scorer last season who is struggling through a miserable campaign, tied a career high with seven shots on goal Monday and scored for the third time in nine games after going nearly 2 1/2 months without a tally. Tyler Ennis scored for the fourth time in eight games to move within two goals of reaching 20 for the third time in his career.
ABOUT THE BRUINS (36-23-10): Milan Lucic and rookie David Pastrnak each had four-game point streaks halted Sunday but they have formed an effective unit with Ryan Spooner, who has collected eight points in his last nine games. One question facing coach Claude Julien is whether to keep that trio intact with the impending return of David Krejci, who suffered a knee injury on Feb. 20 but has resumed skating. “We’ve always said when Looch skates, that’s when he’s at his best," Julien said of Lucic. "Those guys have probably forced him to skate even more."
OVERTIME
1. The Bruins are 0-for-12 on the power play over the past three games.
2. Buffalo has scored first in 10 of its last 12 contests.
3. Bruins backup G Niklas Svedberg could be in line for a start - he's 2-0-0 with a shutout against Buffalo.