A fortuitous back-to-back arrives on the schedule for the Hawks this week, giving the team a chance to quickly dispense of the unpleasantries from Thursday night when it ventures to Buffalo to face the Sabres on Friday.

Buffalo hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2011 and doesn’t appear any closer to bucking that trend this season because it currently sits 29th in the league standings roughly one-quarter of the way through this season. The Sabres don’t do much of anything well: they’re 24th in the league with 2.85 goals scored per game and 27th with 3.55 allowed per game. They’re the worst faceoff team in the league (42.6 percent) and No. 24 on the power play (16.4 percent). The possession numbers are fine (see below) and they do boast the top PK unit in the league at 89.8 percent but that hasn’t been anywhere near enough to keep this team afloat in the standings. Buffalo had 1-4-4 stretch in late October and early November before nabbing a pair of wins in the last week, although that brief spurt of success was undone by a 6-2 defeat at home against the dungeon-dwelling Flames on Wednesday night.

Injuries certainly haven’t helped, with six players currently on IR, including they’re top player by AAV in forward Josh Norris, who hasn’t played for the Sabres since the season opener. They’ve also been without 2023 first-rounder Zach Benson and top-six mainstay Jason Zucker. There are still a few noticeable producers here, primarily towering Tage Thompson, who again leads the team in goals (10) and points (18). He’s been on the top line with Alex Tuch (16 points in 20 games) beside him and Josh Doan (12 in 20) at the other wing, which is a decent trio for a scoring line but is really the only main threat Buffalo’s forwards offer. The blue line has a ton of high draft picks in Rasmus Dahlin (No. 1 overall in 2018), Owen Power (No. 1 overall in 2021) and Bowen Bryam (No. 4 overall in 2019), although some questions are being asked of those late two regarding their career trajectories. In net, youngsters Colten Ellis (3-2-0, .896 save percentage, 3.41 goals-against average) and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1-2-1, .883, 3.02) have been closer to average than good while veteran Alex Lyon (3-5-3, .907, 3.07) has had the best numbers thus far.

It’ll be UPL in the Buffalo net for this game, with Zucker apparently skating but Benson and Norris not, according to morning skate reports:

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the starter’s net at Sabres morning skate. The lines

Doan- Thompson -Tuch
Zucker-McLeod-Quinn
Kozak -Ostlund -Rosen
Greenway-Krebs- Malenstyn

Dunne, Benson and Norris are extras

Samuelsson-Dahlin
Byram-Timmins
Bryson-Power

— Matthew Fairburn (@matthewfairburn.bsky.social) November 21, 2025 at 9:49 AM

As for the Hawks, Thursday’s game fell apart in the final 20 minutes, as Chicago blew a two-goal lead and then a terrible call on Connor Bedard led to the game-winning PPG for Seattle. While the call against Bedard was painfully weak, it wouldn’t hurt if the young phenom avoids future instances of turning back towards an official and screaming “Fuck you!” a few times as camera angles and amateur lip-reading appeared to document during that fateful moment.

The other unfortunate news from that game was the injury to Andre Burakovsky, who took the exact type of hit to the head that the league allegedly wants to remove from the game yet that particular hit went without any sort of punishment. He’s out for this game, so the lineup against Buffalo is anyone’s guess.

Below is the lineup from the Seattle game:

Blackhawks lines:
Greene-Bedard-Burakovsky
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Moore
Teravainen-Donato-Mikheyev
Dach-Lafferty

Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Levshunov
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Rinzel

Knight between the pipes

— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM

Thursday sucked, perhaps the first time this season that the Hawks were guilty of throwing away a game that they had no business losing. Pick up a pair of points this evening and it’s a distant memory. Let it marinate too long and the disappoint will only increase. Easy to see what the better of the two options available are.

Let’s go Hawks.

Tale of the Tape

Blackhawks — Statistic — Sabres
45.79% (27th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 47.47% (24th)
44.98% (27th) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.78% (16th)
3.3 (7th) — Goals per game — 2.85 (24th)
2.55 (3rd) — Goals against per game — 3.55 (27th)
46.6% (28th) — Faceoffs — 42.6% (32nd)
24.1% (9th) — Power play — 16.4% (24th)
83.6% (7th) — Penalty kill — 89.8% (1st)
(All stats from this season)

How to watch

When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: KeyBank Center, Buffalo
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+/Hulu
Radio: WGN 720