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NHL on NBCSN: Red Wings hope to smoke Sabres

Detroit Red Wings v Buffalo Sabres

Detroit Red Wings v Buffalo Sabres

Bill Wippert

NBCSN will continue its coverage of the 2014-15 campaign when the Detroit Red Wings host the Buffalo Sabres at the Consol Energy Center at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight. In addition to NBCSN, you can also watch the game and pre-show online.

Just about every sign points to the Detroit Red Wings winning tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, possibly by a wide margin.

The game is in Detroit. Both teams are closing off back-to-back sets, so the fatigue factor is more or less balanced. While the Sabres might use a scathing column as bulletin board material, the takeaway is that Buffalo’s been bad ... maybe even historically so.

The Red Wings have won three in a row and eight of 11 despite a road-heavy schedule in which they’ve only played two games in Detroit. The Red Wings have generated five of a possible six points against Buffalo so far this season, only dropping a shootout. Even with an injury to Jimmy Howard in mind, Detroit just keeps chugging along with Petr Mrazek acquitting himself nicely.

Oh yeah, the Sabres are also free-falling with 10 straight regulation losses that have largely erased the memory of Jhonas Enroth briefly boosting Buffalo to something resembling competence. (Now at 14-29-3, it’s difficult to picture Buffalo generating a relatively frisky 13-16-2 mark.)

Even with all these points in Detroit’s favor, the Red Wings still need to actually win the game.

In a strange twist, things have gotten toxic enough in Buffalo that a five-game road trip might just be a tonic for the Sabres’ troubles, or at least a change of pace.

(Hey, it’s probably the best way to boost up Buffalo’s downtrodden spirits at this point.)

Long story short, if you need a touch of “David vs. Goliath” in your sports day, then this game should have you covered.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins