With no morning skate ahead of Sunday's early-afternoon tilt, we'll have to wait until warmups to see if the interim head coach tinkers with his combinations or if he starts the newly-arrived 34-year-old netminder.
For their part, the Sabres are winless in three games, although they picked up a point in their 4-3 overtime loss to those same Blue Jackets on Thursday night. Rasmus Dahlin, Kyle Okposo, and Alex Tuch scored to give Buffalo a 3-1 lead, but the Sabres allowed a pair of Columbus goals in the final frame before dropping it early in extra time.
Tage Thompson leads Buffalo with 32 points (14G, 18A) in 42 games. Jeff Skinner (16G, 13A) and Dahlin (8G, 21A) are behind him with 29 points apiece.
In goal, former Hab Dustin Tokarski leads his team with 16 games played in the Sabres crease this season, but it's Craig Anderson who will get the start in Montreal on Sunday. The 40-year-old has a 5-3-0 record, 2.63 goals-against average, and .917 save percentage in eight starts this season.
Casey Mittelstadt has been day-to-day with an upper-body injury since February 1, and head coach Don Granato said on Saturday he wouldn't be ready to return. Meanwhile, Will Butcher, Zemgus Girgensons, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Colin Miller are all on IR.
This is the third of four contests between the Atlantic Division rivals. Buffalo had the edge in the first two games, beating Montreal 5-1 in October and 4-1 in November.
Broadcast information
Puck drop is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET.
The game will be broadcast on SN, TVAS and MSG-B, as well as on TSN 690 and 98,5 fm on the radio.