Jhonas Enroth

For the second time this year, the Sabres are on the road playing the second half of a back-to-back series. Buffalo traveled to Pittsburgh last night and took the ice this morning for a quick session at the Consol Energy Center. A little more than half the players took part in the optional session, most notably goaltender Jhonas Enroth who was confirmed as the starter for tonight’s game against the Penguins. Head coach Lindy Ruff made it a point to say during his morning press conference that in back-to-back scenarios, goaltenders would need to share the workload.

“We plan on using Jhonas a fair amount, so in back-to-back situations, we are definitely going to use him. The overall plan for him is every 3-to-4 games to get him in.”

The Sabres will need to see an improvement on their special teams in the wake of last night’s 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The teams power play was 0-6 on the night and gave up 2 short-handed goals… trends that Ruff knows cannot continue.

“We played some situations to aggressively, gambled, and talked about that as a team and it is definitely something we have to clean up.”

MORNING SKATE PODCASTSM

Lindy Ruff Interview

Jhonas Enroth Interview

Pittsburgh is on an early season roll, currently unbeaten in regulation and sitting in first place in the Atlantic division. Sidney Crosby still remains out of the line-up and the Pens will be without another key player as Evgeni Malkin will sit for the third time in four games as he rests his surgically repaired right knee. Mike Weber, Matt Ellis and Jochen Hecht all appear to be out of the lineup for the four-consecutive game.

Game time is 7:00 P.M. and can be seen on MSG. Don’t forget to tune into MSG at 6:30 for the Tops Game Night pregame show featuring an exclusive interview with Christian Ehrhoff and follow along with the game on Twitter with @SabresDotCom.