NHL Saturday Night Spotlight

Colorado Avalanche at Buffalo Sabres

For a good part of this season, Buffalo's success depended largely on Ryan Miller standing on his head in the crease.

But apart from the shutout Miller pitched against the Canadiens last Sunday, the Sabres have allowed three goals in each of the other four contests that make up their current five-game winning streak.

Meanwhile, Colorado has streaked and slumped on the back of its rejuvenated netminder, Craig Anderson. He got the Avalanche out of the gate quickly, but things have turned sour lately as the team has won only 14 of its last 31 after starting the year 10-1-2.

With that in mind, Colorado will start Peter Budaj in goal Friday night to give Anderson a rest. He'll likely be back in between the pipes Saturday against Buffalo.

Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks

Alex Burrows often gets overlooked playing on a line with the Sedin twins, but that may not be for much longer. The left winger who worked his way up to the NHL from the East Coast Hockey League recorded back-to-back hat tricks this week and now has 17 goals, 17 assists, and is +19 on the season.

"With the way he plays, it's just so fun," Henrik Sedin, who now has a three-point lead on top of the NHL scoring race, told reporters. "In that way, he's just the opposite to us.

"But in others, he's a lot like us. He's so calm when he gets the puck. You just look at that third goal, it was a hot shot and he put it upstairs. That's what you do when you're feeling good about yourself."

The Flames could use some of that feel-good attitude after having their five-game winning streak snapped by an uninspired 3-1 loss to Minnesota.

"Our energy was low," said Flames coach Brent Sutter. "Bottom line - we just didn't have a pushback. The mental and physical part of our game, that wasn't there, either. Hey, it's a disappointing way to finish the trip.

"We didn't play well, let's face it. I'm not going to sit here and deny that. We weren't a good hockey team here. It lacked energy, no question. We just weren't sharp at all."

Detroit Red Wings at San Jose Sharks

Chris Osgood made a few headlines last week, talking about how he didn't want to be a backup to youngster Jimmy Howard, but if the kid keeps rolling like this, Osgood may not get off the bench for a while.

Howard made 51 saves in Thursday's 2-1 win over the Kings.

"It was just one of those nights," Howard told reporters. "Even if I was out of position, I was still able to scramble and get a limb on it. When we came in the room after the second period, Ozzie (Chris Osgood) was just laughing. It was like, 'Wow.'"

It wasn't all good news on the Red Wings front this week though. The injury bug bit again in practice, putting the team's leading scoring Tomas Holmstrom on the shelf with a broken foot.

San Jose should provide a stiff test. The Sharks have won nine of their last 10.