The Buffalo Sabres 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday has lifted them out the basement of the Eastern Conference, but the club faces the difficult task of playing their next six games on the road, where they have not enjoyed much success this season. 

The Sabres have the worst record in the NHL on the road at 2-6-2, but are coming off a 3-2 shootout victory in Minnesota on Saturday. Buffalo will play the Flyers in Philadelphia on Wednesday, before heading to Western Canada to play the Jets, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest against Seattle over the next 11 days.  

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"This is a big trip for us. We need to improve our road play and hopefully use that game in Minnesota as a game that kind of turns in the right direction for us." Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after practice on Tuesday. "I couldn't remember (a) trip this long. It goes back even with the other teams I've been with. So it is different. There will be a lot of time together, practicing a couple days on the road, won't be a lot of practice, but the way the schedule unfolds, probably we get one or two."

Ruff indicated that the club will likely recall a defenseman before heading west, after they sent Zach Metsa back to AHL Rochester on Monday. He also indicated that blueliner Michael Kesselring will not travel with the team and will continue skating in Buffalo after suffering a lower body injury last month, and that forward Tyson Kozak has been hampered by an unspecified injury, 

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