Sabres Battle For First Place With Matchup Against Tampa Bay

3/8/26 - 6:00pm at KeyBank Center, in Buffalo, NY

Buffalo – 38-19-6 | - 82  points – 2nd place in the Atlantic Division

Tampa Bay  – 39-18-4 | - 82 points – 1st place in the Atlantic Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 19.6% (19th)

Penalty Kill – 83.1% (5th)

Tampa Bay

Power Play – 21.9% (13th)

Penalty Kill - 83.4% (3rd)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 63 GP, 34 G, 32 A, 66 PTS

Rasmus Dahlin: 59 GP, 12 G, 42 A, 54 PTS

Alex Tuch: 62 GP, 25 G, 29 A, 54 PTS

Tampa Bay

Nikita Kucherov: 57 GP, 32 G, 68 A, 100 PTS

Jake Guentzel: 61 GP, 27 G, 40 A, 67 PTS

Brandon Hagel: 56 GP, 29 G, 28 A, 57 PTS

Starting Goalies(projected)

Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (14-7-2, 2.55 GAA, .910 Sv %)

Tampa Bay – Andrei Vasilevskiy (29-10-3, 2.25 GAA, .914 Sv %)  

Other Sabres Stories

Six Former Sabres Who Signed Elsewhere

Sabres Line Combinations and Pairings (projected)

Forwards

Peyton Krebs  - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch

Noah Ostlund - Josh Norris - Josh Doan

Jason Zucker - Ryan McLeod - Jack Quinn  

Zach Benson - Sam Carrick - Beck Malenstyn

Ex. Josh Dunne, Tyson Kozak, Tanner Pearson

Defense

Mattias Samuelsson - Rasmus Dahlin

Bowen Byram - Owen Power

Zach Metsa -. Michael Kesselring

Ex. Logan Stanley, Luke Schenn

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Alex Lyon

Colten Ellis

Injuries

Justin Danforth (lower body, Oct. 18; injured reserve)

Jiri Kulich (blood clot, Nov. 4; injured reserve - out for the season) 

Conor Timmins (broken leg, Dec. 20; injured reserve)

Zach Benson (upper-body, Feb 3, day-to-day)

Notes

The Sabres have earned at least one point in 13 of their last 15 contests (12-2-1), including wins in each of their last six games. It marks the first time Buffalo has registered multiple winning streaks of at least six games since it recorded winning streaks of six, seven and eight games in 2005-06. A win tonight would mark the fourth time in franchise history that the Sabres have earned multiple winning streaks of seven or more games in a single season. They also did so in 2006-06 (7 games, 8 games), 1983-84 (7 games, 10 games) and 1975-76 (7 games, 8 games). Since Dec. 9, the Sabres ranked first among all NHL teams in wins (27), regulation wins (24) and points (56).

Tage Thompson has recorded 45 points (22+23) in his last 38 games, 

including 35 points (16+19) in his last 28 games. Thompson is riding a 10-game point streak (6+4) and a point tonight would extend the longest point streak of his career to 11 games. A point tonight would give Thompson the longest point streak by a Sabres skater since Jack Eichel from Nov. 16 to Dec. 21, 2019 (18 games; 16+16).

Rasmus Dahlin has recorded 25 points (8+17) in his last 20 games, including six points (1+5) in his last four contests.

Josh Norris has posted six points (3+3) in his last five games.

Alex Tuch has recorded at least one point in five consecutive games and he has six points (3+3) in that span.Tuch has notched three point streaks of five or more games this season.

Owen Power has collected four points (2+2) in his last four games.

Bowen Byram is one assist away from 100 in his NHL career.

Noah Ostlund has recorded an assist in three straight games and an assist tonight would extend the longest assist streak of his career to four games.

Dating back to Jan. 19, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has appeared in six 

games and he has made 152 saves on 162 shots (.938) in that span

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