Tampa Bay Lightning (48-22-6) at Buffalo Sabres (46-23-8)<\/p>\n
Puck Drop: 7:00 PM | KeyBank Center | Buffalo, New York<\/p>\n
TV: NHL Network, MSG-B<\/p>\n
Radio: WGR 550<\/p>\n
Know Your Opponent<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning <\/p>\n
Record: 48-22-6 | 102 PTS<\/p>\n
Division Ranking: 1st in Atlantic Division<\/p>\n
Last Game: 3-1 Win vs Boston Bruins<\/p>\n
PP: 14th (21.7%) | Sabres Rank: 15th (20.8%)<\/p>\n
PK: 4th (82.3%) | Sabres Rank: 5th (82.1%)<\/p>\n
What to Watch<\/p>\n
1. Welcome to the Thunderdome<\/p>\n
The last time these two teams faced off they put on a show. Tampa Bay tried to bully the Sabres and re-establish their Atlantic division dominance. Buffalo nearly lost their way after all the post-whistle nonsense but recovered to secure a regulation win. Stanley watched from the press box due to post-trade immigration delays and sounded like he was taking notes for this game when he joined the broadcast booth. Sequels rarely live up to the original but there is likely going to be some fireworks in Buffalo. Sabres fans have yet to celebrate with their team after they officially ended the 14-year playoff drought on Saturday, and the Beer Sabre will return for the night. The Sabres should feed off the energy of the crowd to give them a boost.<\/p>\n
2. Fight for Home Ice<\/p>\n
In most years, achieving 100 points with 5 games left would usually secure home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. However, the Atlantic is exceptionally strong this year. As it stands, 3 of the top 6 teams in the league are Tampa Bay, Montreal, and Buffalo. Montreal\u2019s recent hot streak has given them the edge on Buffalo for the 2nd seed with Tampa Bay leading the division by two points. The regulation loss by Montreal last night to the Islanders was huge. Buffalo can use any advantage they can get heading into the playoffs and now control their own destiny by being holding the tiebreaker against the Canadians even though their tied in points. The division crown would be nice but home ice advantage in the first round is crucial. They must get back on track against the Lightning or else they will likely open the first round in the unfriendly confines of Bell Centre or Benchmark International Arena. They need to focus on cleaning up their defensive zone. The turnovers have been killers in recent games and Tampa Bay\u2019s offense is lethal when given opportunities.<\/p>\n
3. 3rd Pair Scare<\/p>\n
Lindy Ruff said the team needs to be stronger in front of the net. To that end, it looks as though he\u2019s opted to roll out a third pair of Stanley and Schenn. While they do provide additional muscle to the lineup, they are a poor matchup against a highly skilled team like Tampa Bay. With last change, look for Ruff to shelter that pair as much as possible and lean on the top 4 against the Lightning. With margin for error limited, Sabres fans hope the decision to prioritize physicality over skill is the right call.<\/p>\n
Projected Lineups<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Krebs \u2013 Thompson* \u2013 Tuch<\/p>\n
Benson \u2013 Norris \u2013 Doan<\/p>\n
Zucker \u2013 McLeod \u2013 Quinn<\/p>\n
Greenway \u2013 Dunne \u2013 Malenstyn<\/p>\n
* \u201cJust maintenance\u201d for Tage Thompson, Lindy Ruff said. He expects him to play tonight.<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Samuelsson \u2013 Dahlin<\/p>\n
Byram \u2013 Power<\/p>\n
Stanley \u2013 Schenn<\/p>\n
Starter: Luukkonen<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Guentzel \u2013 Point \u2013 Kucherov<\/p>\n
Bjorkstrand \u2013 Cirelli \u2013 Goncalves<\/p>\n
Girgensons \u2013 Gourde \u2013 Holmberg<\/p>\n
Perry \u2013 Paul \u2013 Chaffee<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Moser \u2013 Raddysh<\/p>\n
McDonagh \u2013 Cernak<\/p>\n
D\u2019Astous \u2013 Lilleberg<\/p>\n
Starter: Vasilevskiy<\/p>\n
Brandon Hagel (undisclosed injury) won\u2019t play tonight, Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning (48-22-6) at Buffalo Sabres (46-23-8) Puck Drop: 7:00 PM | KeyBank Center | Buffalo, New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-220825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}