Buffalo Sabres vs. Tampa Bay Lightning - Lineups, Injury Updates, And Game Notes

Game 18 - 11/11/26 - 7:00 pm at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY

Buffalo – 8-6-3 | - 19 points – 6th place in the Atlantic Division

Tampa Bay – 11-4-2 | - 24 points – 3rd place in the Atlantic Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 14.3% (30th)

Penalty Kill – 71.2% (26th)

Tampa Bay

Power Play – 19.4% (21st)

Penalty Kill - 72.9% (25th)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 17 GP, 10 G, 9 A, 19 PTS

Jack Quinn: 17 GP, 9 G, 7 A, 16 PTS

Zach Benson: 17 GP, 2 G, 13 A, 15 PTS

Tampa Bay

Nikita Kucherov: 17 GP, 5 G, 17 A, 22 PTS

Jake Guentzel: 17 GP, 10 G, 8 A, 18 PTS

Brandon Hagel: 17 GP, 9 G, 9 A, 18 PTS

Starting Goalies

Buffalo –  Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (5-3-3, 3.27 GAA, .878 Sv %)

Tampa Bay  – Andrei Vasilevskiy (8-4-1, 2.85 GAA, .883 Sv %)

Other Sabres Stories

Mrtka Looking To Take The Next Step Towards The NHL 

Sabres Line Combinations and Pairings (estimated)

Forwards

Peyton Krebs - Josh Norris - Tage Thompson  

Zach Benson - Noah Ostlund - Jack Quinn 

Josh Doan - Ryan McLeod - Jason Zucker  

Tyson Kozak- Sam Carrick - Beck Malenstyn 

Ex. Jiri Kulich

Defense

Mattias Samuelsson - Rasmus Dahlin 

Olen Zellweger - Owen Power  

Zach Metsa - Conor Timmins

Ex. Louis Crevier  

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Colten Ellis

Notes

Buffalo has earned at least one point in each of its last four matchups against Tampa Bay, including wins in three straight against the Lightning.

Buffalo last earned four consecutive wins over Tampa Bay from Oct. 24, 2009 to March 27, 2010.

Buffalo’s three-game winning streak over Tampa Bay is tied for the longest active winning streak against the Lightning (Columbus, NY Rangers).

A win tonight would make the Sabres the first NHL team to earn at least four consecutive victories over the Lightning since Toronto from Oct. 21, 2024 to Dec. 8, 2025 (five games).

In his last 12 games, Zach Benson has registered 14 points (2+12), including seven points (1+6) in his last five contests.

Tage Thompson has registered 10 points (5+5) in his last six games. Thompson is one assist away from 200 assists in his career.

Jack Quinn has recorded 14 points (7+7) in his last 12 games, including five points (3+2) in his last five games.

Peyton Krebs has tallied five points (1+4) in his last five games.  Krebs is one assist away from 100 assists in his career.

Rasmus Dahlin has registered five points (1+4) in his last five games.

Tonight’s game opens Buffalo’s second of 14 back-to-back sets in 2026-27, which concludes on the road in Chicago tomorrow night.

The Sabres are 1-0-0 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 0-0-1 in the second game so far this season.

Injuries

Alex Lyon (upper body, Oct. 1; injured reserve) – 16 

Matt Grzelcyk (lower body, Oct. 13; injured reserve) – 10 

Konsta Helenius (upper body, Oct. 29) – 4 

Justin Danforth (undisclosed, Oct. 29; injured reserve) – 4 

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