told Sabres.com<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a big two points. It\u2019s a four-point game early, so it\u2019s always gonna be heated. Those division (games) are always gonna be heated, tough, hard to play against. We\u2019re ready for it, and we\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n2. McLeod in, Kulich out<\/p>\n
After taking a seat for two games, Ryan McLeod is poised to return to the Sabres lineup, taking the place of Jiri Kulich.<\/p>\n
The two forwards haven\u2019t met expectations so far this season, with both posting just three points. With Kulich returning from missing nearly an entire season, it\u2019s fair to assume it\u2019ll take some time to find his game and scoring touch, but McLeod\u2019s poor play has been more of a surprise.<\/p>\n
McLeod was one of Buffalo\u2019s most consistent forwards a year ago, but has only seemed to be visible for the wrong reasons in this early season. His defensive blunder in last week\u2019s loss to Ottawa allowed the Senators to tie the game late, and may well have been a contributor to his benching.<\/p>\n
He is slated to center a line with Josh Doan and Jason Zucker, two other Sabres who have not quite lived up to expectations this season. Time will tell if watching a couple games from the press box helps reinvigorate the 27-year-old. <\/p>\n
3. Home ice scoring struggles<\/p>\n
The Sabres have not found their scoring touch at home.<\/p>\n
Buffalo ranks 31st in the NHL with an 8.2 shooting percentage at all strengths on home ice, compared to 8th on the road. They have scored 13.64 goals below expected at home, the worst mark in the league.<\/p>\n
Buffalo has long been a positive shooting team, which greatly helped them return to the playoffs a year ago. While the Sabres lost some offensive talent in Alex Tuch, it does fully not explain the regression of home-ice scoring, as Buffalo ranked 6th in the NHL in home shooting percentage last season.<\/p>\n
The good news for the Sabres, though, is that they are doing the right things to win games at home. Despite their woeful scoring numbers, they have actually been a top 10 team at driving play on home ice with a 54.97 xGF%. <\/p>\n
So, is it the loss of scoring talent? Running into hot goalies? Simply bad luck? Who\u2019s to say. But if the Sabres continue to get the chances they\u2019ve been creating, it\u2019s hard to imagine their finishing will stay this poor.<\/p>\n
*All stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.<\/p>\n
4. A notable debut<\/p>\n
The Lightning are set to give their top prospect a shot on NHL ice Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Forward Sam O\u2019Reilly was called up from AHL Syracuse in the wake of an injury to Lightning star Brayden Point, and it appears the 20-year-old Toronto native will make his NHL debut against the Sabres.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly was acquired from Edmonton last summer in a straight swap of highly-touted prospects, as Isaac Howard was sent to the Oilers. In 12 AHL games, O\u2019Reilly has posted four points. He is a two-time Memorial Cup winner, and was the tournament\u2019s MVP in 2026 with the Kitchener Rangers.<\/p>\n
Injury Notes<\/p>\n
Sabres defenseman Louis Crevier is a game-time decision for Wednesday\u2019s game, according to Lindy Ruff. Meanwhile, goalie Alex Lyon will join Buffalo on its upcoming road trip as he works back from a shoulder injury, meaning it likely won\u2019t be long before he makes his season debut.<\/p>\n
As mentioned above, Tampa Bay will be missing a big piece in forward Brayden Point, who exited Sunday\u2019s game against Winnipeg with an injury. <\/p>\n
Projected Lineups<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Peyton Krebs \u2013 Josh Norris \u2013 Tage Thompson
Zach Benson \u2013 Noah Ostlund \u2013 Jack Quinn
Josh Doan \u2013 Ryan McLeod \u2013 Jason Zucker
Sam Carrick \u2013 Tyson Kozak \u2013 Beck Malenstyn<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Rasmus Dahlin \u2013 Mattias Samuelsson
Owen Power \u2013 Olen Zellweger
Zach Metsa \u2013 Conor Timmins<\/p>\n
Goaltenders<\/p>\n
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (projected starter), Colten Ellis<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n
Note: No reported lines prior to pregame<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Jake Guentzel \u2013 Anthony Cirelli \u2013 Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel \u2013 Sam O\u2019Reilly \u2013 Yanni Gourde
Ilya Mikheyev \u2013 Zemgus Girgensons \u2013 Pontus\u00a0Holmberg\u00a0
Jeff Viel \u2013 Conor Geekie\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Charle-Edouard D\u2019Astous \u2013 John Carlson
Ryan McDonagh \u2013 Erik Cernak
Victor Hedman \u2013 JJ Moser
Max Crozier<\/p>\n
Goaltenders<\/p>\n
Andrei Vasilevskiy (projected starter), Dennis\u00a0Hildeby<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo, Tampa Bay Buffalo Sabres\u00a0(8-6-3) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (11-4-2) Puck Drop:\u00a07 p.m. ET | KeyBank Center, Buffalo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":["post-709112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-hockey","tag-lightning","tag-nhl","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaylightning"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117599341337060471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709112","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=709112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}