With 14 wins in their past 16 games, the Buffalo Sabres are currently in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and are coming off a key 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

It has been one of the more prolific stretches of hockey for Buffalo as they hunt for their first playoff berth since 2010-11.

But even amidst this prolific stretch of wins, Buffalo is still in danger of falling back in the playoff picture. They have the same number of points as the Boston Bruins (54 points) but have two games in hand. The Toronto Maple Leafs are one point back with 53, while the Pittsburgh Penguins and Flyers are lurking with 52 points each.

The team was led by captain Rasmus Dahlin in Wednesday’s victory, who scored two power-play goals.

Despite the big performance, Dahlin said there is still room for improvement for Buffalo, who managed just 14 shots against the Flyers.

“Today, we scored on them, but that’s an area we have to improve, and we can’t be happy with 14 shots,” Dahlin said after the game. “We need more volume.”

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff added that Dahlin has even more to give. The 25-year-old defenceman has six goals and 32 points in 41 games this season while averaging 24:10 of ice time but has a plus/minus rating of -13.

“There’s a guy that cares,” said Ruff of Dahlin. “He’s not happy with his game. What some would assess would be a good game, he says that’s not his standard. I think that’s a great place to be. I think he knows.

“I thought tonight he really skated well. You can look at the goals as an end result. The way he skated up ice, handled the puck, I think there’s more. That’s always the challenge with where you’re at as a team. Like, do you have more? I think he understands that part.”

The Sabres host the Montreal Canadiens tonight, a team that has eyes on surging into top spot in the Atlantic Division.

Montreal (59 points) is just two points back of tying Tampa Bay (61 points) for first place with the Detroit Red Wings sitting one point ahead of the Canadiens (60 points).

The Canadiens are coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. Montreal led 2-0 heading into the third period but relinquished their lead as Connor McMichael completed the comeback with the game winner in overtime.

“I thought we played a good half of the game,” said Canadiens forward Josh Anderson after the game. “They created momentum in the second half of the game and kind of took it to us there, and, obviously, ‘Monty’ [goaltender Samuel Montembeault] played a really good game for us tonight.”

Montreal confirmed that rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler will get the start for the Canadiens tonight while defenceman Kaiden Guhle draws back in and Jayden Struble sits.