{"id":388613,"date":"2026-01-03T16:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/388613\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T16:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:08:13","slug":"nhl-game-preview-buffalo-sabres-at-columbus-blue-jackets-with-line-combinations-1-3-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/388613\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Game Preview: Buffalo Sabres at Columbus Blue Jackets with Line Combinations 1\/3\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NHL<\/p>\n

(Photo by: AP-Jeffrey T. Barnes)<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres (21-14-4, 46 pts) at Columbus Blue Jackets (17-16-6, 40 pts)<\/p>\n

Venue: Nationwide Arena
Date: Saturday, January 3
Time: 3:00 pm EST
How To Watch:\u00a0ESPN+, MSG-B, FDSNOH
Radio:\u00a0550 WGR\/106.5 FM, 97.1 The Fan<\/p>\n

Purchase tickets via Ticketmaster<\/a><\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres & Notes:<\/p>\n

The Sabres extended their winning streak to ten games with their 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. They\u2019re 5-0-0 in their last five games, averaging 3.6 goals per game while allowing 1.6 goals per game.<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets News & Notes:<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets lost their last game, 3-2, against the Devils on Wednesday night. They\u2019re 3-2-0 in their last five games, averaging 3.2 goals per game while allowing 2.2 goals per game.<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres Projected Lines:<\/p>\n

Krebs-Thompson-Doan
Ostlund-Norris-Tuch
Benson-McLeod-Quinn
Greenway-Dunne-Malenstyn<\/p>\n

Samuelsson-Dahlin
Byram-Power
Bryson-Metsa<\/p>\n

Luukkonen
Ellis<\/p>\n

Get Your Buffalo Hockey Merchandise here<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Jackets Projected Lines<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets Projected Lines:<\/p>\n

Marchment-Fantilli-Marchenko
Voronkov-Sillinger-Heinen
Jenner-Coyle-Olivier
Aston Reese-Gaunce-Johnson<\/p>\n

Werenski-Mateychuk
Provorov-Severson
Christiansen-Fabbro<\/p>\n

Greaves
Merzlikins<\/p>\n

Get Your Columbus Hockey Merchandise Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Players To Watch:<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n

Tage Thompson<\/a> had two goals and an assist in the Sabres win over the Stars back on December 31st.<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

Charlie Coyle<\/a> had a goal in the losing effort for the Blue Jackets in their 3-2 loss to the Devils back on December 31st.<\/p>\n

Injury Report:<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n

D\u00a0Conor Timmins<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 IR
F Jiri Kulich<\/a> \u2013 IR
F Justin Danforth<\/a> \u2013 IR
G\u00a0Colten Ellis<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 IR
F Tyson Kozak \u2013 DTD
F- Jason Zucker
G \u2013 Alex Lyon<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/p>\n

F Isac Lundestrom<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 DTD
D Erik Gudbranson<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 IR
F Sean Monahan<\/a> \u2013 Out
D- Brendan Smith \u2013 IR
F-Miles Wood \u2013 IR<\/p>\n

Next Game<\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from Inside The Rink<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

JC Giff<\/a><\/p>\n

Father of 3, Bruins, Red Sox, Cubs, Liverpool, Syracuse football and Basketball Fan. Love Fantasy Football, Baseball and Hockey. If I am not at work, I either at an ice rink, Ball field or spending quality time with my family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo by: AP-Jeffrey T. Barnes) Buffalo Sabres (21-14-4, 46 pts) at Columbus Blue Jackets (17-16-6, 40 pts) Venue:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5100],"tags":[4114,10786,1107,229,5133,1285,2187,230,6756,6817,5,49784,11079,9982,6814,4997,4,1108,1945,1712,11078],"class_list":["post-388613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-buffalo-sabres","tag-alex-lyon","tag-brendan-smith","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-buffalosabres","tag-charlie-coyle","tag-colten-ellis","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-conor-timmins","tag-erik-gudbranson","tag-hockey","tag-isac-lundestom","tag-jason-zucker","tag-jiri-kulich","tag-justin-danforth","tag-miles-wood","tag-nhl","tag-sabres","tag-sean-monahan","tag-tage-thompson","tag-tyson-kozak"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115832036685123263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}