Getty Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark will face his old team on Friday.
Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark will make his debut against his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, which has a surprising 3-0 start to the season.
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The game (7 p.m. ET start time) won’t be televised, but anyone in the US can watch the Bruins vs Sabres live on ESPN+:
ESPN+ will have about 75 of these exclusive national NHL games (no blackouts for in-market viewers) this season. It also includes every out-of-market, non-nationally televised game (about 1,000 games in total), plus dozens of other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary in existence and additional original content (both video and written) all for $6.99 for a month or $69.99 for a year (or about seven cents per NHL game if you want to look at it that way). It’s a must-have option for NHL fans in the United States.
If you also want Disney+ and Hulu, you can get all three for $13.99 per month. Separately, the three streaming services would cost a total $20.97 per month, so you’re saving about 33 percent:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch the Bruins vs Sabres live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
Bruins vs Sabres Preview
Buffalo (3-0-0) looks to complete a four-game home stand unblemished with the Boston Bruins (1-1-0) and former Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark coming to town on Friday.
Ullmark will make his first regular season start against his old team since Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy planned it that way all along according to the Boston Globe’s Julian Benbow. With the Sabres, Ullmark went 50-47-0 with a .912 save percentage and 2.78 goals against average in six seasons.
“He knows them better than anybody,” Cassidy said per Benbow. “They probably know him better than anybody. So there’s always a flip side to both of those. But hopefully he’s ready to go.”
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swaymann started the first two games with 46 saves, an .885 save percentage, and 3.02 goals against average. The Bruins beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Oct. 16 but fell to the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 on Wednesday.
Boston has a tough Atlantic Division opener Buffalo, which has loads of momentum after reaching 3-0 for the first time in 13 years on Tuesday according to Field Level Media. The Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 after edging the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 16 and besting the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Oct. 14.
“I think we need to just stick with what we’re doing,” Sabres winger Rasmus Asplund said per Field Level Media. “If we do that, I think we can be a tough opponent for every team. … Boston is a (Stanley) Cup contender, and I think it’s going to be a great test for us and really see where we’re at right now.”
Buffalo hasn’t enjoyed winning for a significant time amid a 10-year playoff drought. The Sabres have a young and talented team overall despite missing star center Jack Eichel, who has been at odds with the team’s front office over handling his herniated disc injury.
Goal scoring comes from all over with eight different Sabres scoring goals already. Only Kyle Okposo, Tage Thompson and Zemgus Girgeensons have multiple goals.
Goalie Craig Anderson has two of the Sabres’ wins with a 1.50 goals allowed average and a .954 save percentage. Fellow goalie Dustin Tokarski won the overtime game against Arizona with a 0.92 goals against average and .952 save percentage.
Boston has plenty of offensive threats with Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak. The Bruins won’t have winger Nick Foligno for the game per Boston Hockey Now’s Jimmy Murphy.