Buffalo Sabres (11-11-4) at Philadelphia Flyers (14-8-3)

Puck Drop: 7:30 PM | Xfinity Mobile Arena | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

TV: TNT/HBO Max

Radio: WGR 550

Know Your Opponent

Detroit Red Wings

Record: 14-8-3 | 31 PTS

Division Ranking: 5th in Metropolitan Division

Last Game: 5-1 Loss vs Penguins

PP: 20th (17.1%) | Sabres Rank: 19th (17.3%)

PK: 11th (82.1%) | Sabres Rank: 2nd (88.9%)

What to Watch

1.  Road Trip

The Sabres will be looking for a couple of firsts on the year as they take on the Flyers. They will be looking for their first regulation win on the road, and their first 3 game win streak of the season. The team has not performed well on the road with only an overtime win in Detroit and shootout win in Minnesota in the win column so far. This game starts a 6-game road trip that will take them cross-country before hosting the Flyers a week before Christmas. The Sabres must reverse they trend of road trip disappointments. They are about as healthy as they can hope for, so there’s no excuse to lay an egg.

2. 4-Point Game

The condensed Eastern Conference standings only has a 9 point variance between the first place Hurricanes and the last place Panthers. For comparison, the Western Conference has a 22-point gap between the Avalanche and Flames. That makes these conference games that much more critical, particularly against a Flyers team that sits in the final wild card spot. Buffalo sits 5 points behind the Flyers for that playoff spot. A regulation win against the Flyers would be a 4 point swing in the standings: two points Buffalo earns, two points the Flyers don’t. The standings are too tight to let opportunities like this slip away.

3. Zegras Resurgence

Many had counted Trevor Zegras out after a couple down seasons in Anaheim. At the very least, his reputation as one of the premier offensive threats in the league had taken a serious hit. Zegras was trade from the Ducks to Philadelphia this offseason for a bottom 6 center (Ryan Poehling), a 2025 2nd round pick (45th overall), and a 2026 4th rounder. This was considered a modest price to pay for a player trending toward has-been status. However, Zegras has taken advantage of his fresh start and currently leads the Flyers with 9 goals, 16 assists for 25 points in 25 games. He enters this game riding a 3-game point streak where he has two goals and two assists in those contests. Additionally, Zegras has a 4-game point streak against Buffalo with 2 goals and 4 assists. The Sabres will need to make sure they know where he is at all time before he tips the game in the Flyers favor.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Benson – Norris – Thompson

Doan – Ostlund – Tuch

Zucker – McLeod – Quinn

Dunne – Krebs – Malenstyn

Defense

Samuelsson – Dahlin

Byram – Timmins

Power – Bryson

Starter: Ellis

Philadelphia Flyers

Forwards

Zegras – Dvorak – Konecny

Michkov – Couturier – Tippett

Grebenkin – Cates – Brink

Deslauriers – Abols – Hathaway

Defense

York – Sanheim

Andrae – Drysdale

Seeler – Zamula

Starter: Ersson