Lightning at Sabres
The Tampa Bay Lightning righted their ship with a perfect three-game homestand and head out on the road for the next four, starting with the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. Captain Steven Stamkos notched his 20th goal in the Lightning’s come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Toronto on Monday to become the first team in the Eastern Conference to reach 50 points. Tampa Bay is 4-1-1 in its last six games while Buffalo has cooled off with just one victory in its last six contests.
The Lightning struggled offensively during a 2-5-1 slump before scoring four in a win over Pittsburgh and posting a combined 79 shots on goal in the last two contests. The Sabres are last in the league in scoring and power-play percentage, but have allowed 28 goals the last six contests after a 10-3-0 run that included a shootout win over Tampa Bay at home. It won’t help that captain Brian Gionta (head) and defenseman Tyler Myers (lower body) are expected out for Buffalo.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, Sun Sports (Tampa Bay), Bell TV and MSG-B (Buffalo)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (23-11-4): Ryan Callahan ended a 13-game goal-scoring drought against Toronto to start the comeback while playing on a newly-constructed line with Valterri Filppula and Alex Killorn. Filppula also scored Monday while Killorn tallied for the first time in 13 games Saturday against Carolina. Coach Jon Cooper has changed up his defensive pairings of late with Jason Garrison out injured the last three games as Andrej Sustr joined Victor Hedman while Matt Carle was placed back with Anton Stralman.
ABOUT THE SABRES (14-20-3): Right wing Chris Stewart has been a bright spot of late with a point in five consecutive games after logging one in his previous seven outings. Tyler Ennis leads the Sabres with 23 points, but has only one in the last six games, and Zemgus Girgensons has a team-high 11 goals after notching one in each of the last two contests. Center Torrey Mitchell (foot) and left wing Marcus Foligno (hand) are also out while right wing Patrick Kaleta suffered an apparent leg injury Monday against Ottawa.
OVERTIME
1. Stamkos has reached 20 goals in the first seven seasons of his career and boasts 253 overall more than a month before turning 25.
2. Buffalo G Jhonas Enroth is 10-4-1 in his last 15 decisions after a 1-8-1 start and is 4-1-1 all time against Tampa Bay.
3. Tampa Bay recalled G Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has two wins and a .940 save percentage in three starts, and could rest G Ben Bishop after he won the last two games.