The New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres will see each other Sunday afternoon for the first time in almost four months — and receive reminders their initial clashes this season were a sign of things to come for both teams.
The Devils will try to build off one of their most convincing wins of the season while the Sabres will attempt to play spoiler Sunday afternoon, when New Jersey visits Buffalo in the final meeting of the season between the squads.
The Devils have been off since Wednesday, when they rolled to 5-0 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres won the second game of a four-game homestand Friday night by edging the Nashville Predators, 4-3.
The Devils were outshot 10-7 in a scoreless first period Wednesday before Ondrej Palat, Luke Hughes, Nathan Bastian and Dawson Mercer scored within a 13-minute span in the second period for New Jersey, which bounced back from a 4-2 loss to the Flyers on Monday night.
The victory Wednesday was the most lopsided for the Devils since a 5-0 win over the New York Rangers on Dec. 23. New Jersey has won three of four (3-1-0) following a stretch in which it lost nine of 11 (2-6-3) from Dec. 28 through Jan. 19.
“This is more like the team that we know we can be and how we’re going to win a lot more games,” Devils right winger Timo Meier said. “We can build upon this game, especially those last two periods.”
The Devils, who have made the playoffs just twice in the previous 12 seasons, have been over .500 since opening the 2024-25 campaign with back-to-back wins over the Sabres in the Czech Republic on Oct. 4 and 5.
New Jersey entered Saturday five points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the race for third place in the Metropolitan Division and seven points clear of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who hold the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The consecutive season-opening losses sparked a 1-4-1 start for the Sabres, who went 10-5-0 from Oct. 19 through Nov. 23 before postseason hopes evaporated during a 13-game losing streak (0-10-3) from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21.
The Sabres remain mired in last place in the Eastern Conference with 45 points, though they’ve gone 9-7-1 since Dec. 23. Six of those wins have come against teams that entered Saturday within four points of a playoff spot.
Buffalo has overcome a deficit in each of its last three wins. The Sabres raced out to a 2-0 first-period lead Friday before the Predators scored three times in a span of just under 12 minutes bridging the first two periods.
Jason Zucker tied the score with 7:34 left in the second before Jiri Kulich collected his second goal of the game to give the Sabres the lead with 2:04 remaining in the third.
“We’ve got to continue to build on this,” said Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who finished with two assists. “It wasn’t pretty for 60 (minutes), but we found a way, and that’s what it takes in this league.”
–Field Level Media
