The Sabres and Devils meet tonight in Newark with 2 very imporant points on the line. The Sabres can pull into a tie of 7th and the Devils can pull away from 9 the spot a few points. NJ comes off a 4-2 loss to the Canes on Monday and the Sabres are coming off a 4-2 win against the Caps. NJ will get a boost tonight with the return of young D stud Adam Larsson. He missed the last two games after he returned to Sweeden to attend his grandmothers funeral. Former Sabre Henrik Tallinder will sit again tonight dealing with back spams.

NJ will put future hall of famer Martin Broudeur in goal tonight and the Sabres will counter with Ryan Miller. Miller missed the last meeting between these two in Buffalo, the Devils chased Enroth in a 5-3 win.

On the injury front for Buffalo the news continues to be good, Nathan Gerbe has been cleared for contact and I expect him to play either Friday or more likely Saturday. Tyler Ennis and Myers practiced today both of them look to target a return next week against the Oilers or in Raleigh.

The Sabres are again in a big 9 game stretch starting tonight (@NJ @WAS vs OTT vs EDM @CAR vs WIN @TOR vs TOR @NYI). I expect the Sabres to be able to win most of those games anything other than 12-14 points in this stretch would be unacceptable. Baring any further injuries they should be healthy outside of Leino for these 9 games. No excuses.

Expected Lineup:

Vanek-Hecht-Pommer

Boyes-Roy-Stafford

Kassian-Gaustad-Kaleta

Adam-Ellis-McCormick

Ehrhoff-McNabb

Regher-Sekera

Leopold-Weber

Miller

(Enroth)

Prediction- I anticipate a defensive lock down battle between these two teams. Can't say this often this season, but the Sabres defense has looked better as of late. 3-2 Sabres