The San Jose Sharks are finally back at the SAP Center tonight, after a lengthy road trip throughout the middle of October. Tonight, they'll host the Buffalo Sabres, another young team on the rise that snapped a massive playoff drought last season. The Sabres haven't been very effective on the road to start the 2026-27 season though, as they've only won one of five games away from the KeyBank Center.

The Sharks, on the other hand, have had mixed results at home to start the season as they're currently 2-2-0 at the SAP Center.

A big part of the reason the Sabres have been struggling falls on their goaltending. Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, who has been the starter in Buffalo for most of the season to date has been very ineffective. He has a save percentage of .866 and a 3.56 goals against average through nine games. Colton Ellis, who is the backup and expected to start against San Jose, isn't much better with a 3.19 goals against average and an .864 save percentage in three games.

Goaltending has been a point of contention for the Sharks as well. Yaroslav Askarov will be between the peoples for Team Teal, but his .883 save percentage doesn't provide much comfort for the players in front of him.

Igor Chernyshov and Alex Wennberg remain out of the lineup for the time being, giving the Sharks a shortage of top-end talent in their forward core.

The Sharks have no players who have stood out for their performances against the Sabres, the most notable being Darnell Nurse's 10 points in 19 games. Meanwhile, Rasmus Dahlin has loved playing against San Jose in his career, as he has 16 points in 14 games. With that being said, Beck Malenstyn and Louis Crevier both enter tonight's matchup with two goals in two matchups against Askarov in their careers.

Ryan Warsofsky is continuing to tinker with the Sharks lines, as it appears that he's splitting up the Sharks' dynamic duo of Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini. Considering the team's performance in 5-on-5 play, it's not much of a surprise:

Sharks (Per Max Miller)

Stenberg - Celebrini - Graf

Marchment - Misa - Smith

Sherwood - Dellandrea - Toffoli

Goodrow - Ostapchuk - Gaudette

Nurse - Trouba

Dickinson - Kesselring

Orlov - Cagnoni

Askarov

Sabres (Per Rachel Lenzi)

Benson - Thompson - Helenius

Doan - Ostlund - Quinn

Zucker - Norris - McLeod

Krebs - Kozak - Malenstyn

Samuelsson - Dahlin

Zellweger - Power

Metsa - Crevier

Ellis