Need to Know: Bruins at Sabres

BUFFALO - Mired in the midst of a two-game skid, the Bruins will have to try to right the ship on Saturday night in Buffalo with some key pieces missing from the lineup.
With Charlie McAvoy already having been ruled out with a lower-body injury and David Backes banished three games by the NHL's Department of Player Safety, coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed following an optional morning skate that Brad Marchand will miss the crucial Atlantic Division matchup with an upper-body injury/illness.
Needless to say, the Bruins will have their work cut out for them as they try to ride into the Winter Classic on a high note.

"Our guys have done a good job the last few years of righting the ship and playing the right way after playing a couple games that didn't go our way and we didn't play the appropriate way," said Cassidy. "Let's get back to playing the right way and the process, and the results take care of themselves. I think our minds are all on that."

Cassidy did say that both Marchand and McAvoy "have a chance" to play in South Bend on Tuesday. "We're not ruling them out. They're both on the trip for a reason," Cassidy added.
Backes, meanwhile, was handed a three-game ban on Friday night for an illegal check to the head on New Jersey's Blake Coleman during the third period of Boston's 5-2 loss on Thursday. It is the veteran forward's second suspension in the last nine months, following a three-game ban in March for a hit on Detroit's Frans Nielsen.
"I think there's some disagreement in the length of suspension," said Backes, who is eligible to return against the Sabres on Jan. 5. "That's their call unilaterally and they've made it. We deal with it, so got a skate in today and we'll get to South Bend for practice tomorrow and do the same thing over again, and have some family come in town and enjoy the Winter Classic from a different perspective than we thought we would."
The 34-year-old admitted that there was some head contact on the play, but said he was not trying to deliver a "momentum-changing hit," especially given the situation of the game.
"Time and score, it's 4-2. I'm on the ice with [Patrice Bergeron] and March...think it's gonna be a race for the puck and all of a sudden I'm second to it, now I'm looking to stop him from skating out of the zone and putting it in an empty net," said Backes. "There's certainly some contact to the head, there's a little bit of contact with a glove and a shoulder right before that. He pops right up and scores an empty-netter maybe a minute later.
"The force of the play is not enough for a concussion spotter to pull him out of the game, a trainer to pull him out of the game, or ref to pull him out of the game at that point."

Backes said he checked in on Coleman after the game and was happy to hear that he wasn't injured on the play.
"I think it's great that he's not injured," said Backes. "That's certainly not my intent, especially with my injury history, concussion-related mostly - more than I can count on my fingers. I check with him after the game and he was fine, obviously got some vindication with the empty-net goal.
"Not the way the league saw it. They saw it as a high hit to the head that was avoidable and I need to go through the body. With a prior history, you get a little more scrutiny and here we are with three games."

Saturday's Projected Lineup

Danton Heinen - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Joakim Nordstrom - David Krejci - Jake DeBrusk
Ryan Donato - Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson - Noel Acciari
Sean Kuraly - Colby Cave - Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara - Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug - John Moore
Matt Grzelcyk - Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak
Scratches: Steven Kampfer, Brad Marchand, David Backes.