BUFFALO -- Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan could return to the lineup Friday against the Buffalo Sabres (7 p.m. ET; FS-A PLUS, MSG-B, BELL TV).

Doan has missed the past five games because of a lower-body injury. The Coyotes (13-11-1) are 3-2-0 without Doan, but have lost two straight.

"Anytime you can get a player, a good player, back in your lineup, it helps you," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "Especially your captain, your leader; that would help. But we're not going to put him in there for the sake of putting him in. He's got to be healthy."

BUFFALO – When the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes meet on Friday at First Niagara Center (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG-B, BELL TV), it will be the first time Sabres forward Jack Eichel and Hurricanes defenseman Noah Hanifin will face off against each other.

Eichel was the second pick in the 2015 NHL Draft out of Boston University and is best friends with Hanifin, who was taken fifth out of Boston College. After they played against each other in the NCAA last season as rivals, facing each other in the NHL makes it a bit more special for them.

"I think we're both where we want to be right now," Hanifin said. "I got to know Jack pretty well a few years ago when I played with him in the national program out in Michigan. Obviously he's from [Massachusetts] too, so I played against him when we were young and I think we formed a pretty good relationship over the past few years. … Obviously he's having a lot of success right now. He's a great player and a great kid."

Eichel is tied for the Sabres lead in goals with Ryan O'Reilly at seven in 22 games and has four assists as well. Hanifin has a goal and three assists in 19 games.

BUFFALO – The Buffalo Sabres will have forward Zemgus Girgensons in the lineup when they host the Nashville Predators on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, BELL TV, FS-TN).

Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said Girgensons will re-enter the lineup after he missed the past four games with an upper-body injury he sustained against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 14.

"It's never fun being hurt, it's kind of boring," Girgensons said. "You want to be out there with the team and we've lost the last five. It's tough to just sit at home and watch the game from TV."

BUFFALO -- The St. Louis Blues (13-6-2) will have center Paul Stastny back in the lineup when they face the Buffalo Sabres (8-10-2) on Monday (7 p.m. ET; FS-MW, MSG-B, BELL TV).

Stastny took part in the Blues' optional skate Monday and confirmed he will play against the Sabres. He had missed the past 16 games because of a broken right foot sustained Oct. 16.

"It feels good," Stastny said. "It was just more about … every day I push it more and more and if I didn't have a setback, it kept getting better and better and the doctors checked it out the other day and said it was good to go. When it comes to bone it's different than it is a ligament; just sometimes it's kind of a wait-and-see approach and you have to wait until it heals. The older you are the longer it takes to heal."

Stastny, 29, has one goal and four assists in five games this season and will return to his previous spot between Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko.

"It puts us in a more organized position there," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's going to be a little bit of time before he gets up to speed. I think that line was an awful good line before [Stastny] went down and we'll see how quickly we can get it up to speed. I think he's going to really help us on special teams. He was obviously very good on the power play and equally good killing penalties."

BUFFALO – The Buffalo Sabres will have defenseman Zach Bogosian in the lineup for the first time this season when they host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.

Bogosian will be paired up with Jake McCabe.

"I told him to run a few miles this afternoon to tire himself out," coach Dan Bylsma said. "If he can somehow kind of control himself, control his emotions, he hasn't played a game since April. He's pretty ramped up to play. He's such a great skater. My worry is more of him being too rambunctious than not being able to keep up."

BUFFALO -- The Buffalo Sabres will go for their fourth straight win Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, MSG-B, BELL TV) against a San Jose Sharks team they've had great success against.

The Sabres are home for the first time since sweeping a two-game trip to Florida with a 4-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday and a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

With a win Saturday, the Sabres (8-8-0) would go above .500 for the first time since Jan. 24, 2013.

"We wanted to get to .500 on our last [road] trip and we've done that," Sabres forward Tyler Ennis said. "Now we keep moving. We keep getting better every day and we keep trying to climb up the standings."

The Sabres have won eight straight against the Sharks, who have won once ever in Buffalo, on Dec. 2, 2005. The Sabres are 16-1-0 all-time at home against the Sharks.

BUFFALO -- Goaltender Linus Ullmark will make his third consecutive for the Buffalo Sabres when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SUN, MSG-B, BELL TV).

Ullmark has won two straight games, making 56 saves on 58 shots, and will have the opportunity to help the Sabres end a six-game losing streak against the Lightning. It will be his fourth NHL start.

"If you were trying to write a story or foresee what would happen with the goaltending situation, this was not one of them that you came up with if you dreamed up 10 or 15 scenarios," Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. "But I do think right from the start of training camp, even though he was not in games or in scrimmages, he was showing with his work on the ice he had really high potential."

BUFFALO -- The Buffalo Sabres will be without forward Tyler Ennis for a second straight game because of a lower body injury when they face the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; TCN-PH, MSG-B, BELL TV).

With Ennis out, Marcus Foligno will remain at right wing on the first line, with Ryan O’Reilly at center and Nicolas Deslauriers at left wing. That line had success in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday as Deslauriers scored his second goal of the season and O'Reilly had two assists. The line combined for six shots on goal.

"At this level there are so many good players. And those guys, they're good players," O'Reilly said of his linemates. "They do a lot of things well. You give them a chance and they bury it, like [Deslauriers] last game. Because they're a little more north/south, those guys, and playing with Ennis who is a bit more east/west and looking for holes and looking for the puck, I do kind of hold onto the puck a bit more and try to create more and use my playmaking ability more than with Ennis."

BUFFALO – Buffalo Sabres goalie Linus Ullmark will make his NHL debut against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (7 p.m, ET; MSG+, MSG-B, BELL TV).

Ullmark was recalled from Rochester of the American Hockey League on Friday and will play in his fourth game in North America since coming over from Sweden in the offseason. Ullmark was a sixth-round pick of the Sabres in the 2012 NHL Draft and has played for MODO of the Swedish Hockey League the past four seasons.

"You're always nervous for your first game," Ullmark said. "I just think what I did in Sweden helped me a lot here. Now we're just going to take a few more steps to be able to try to win these games as much as possible."

BUFFALO -- The Montreal Canadiens will look to win their eighth consecutive game to start the season Friday when they face the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center (7 p.m. ET; NHLN-US, RDS, CITYM, MSG-B, BELL TV).

The Canadiens are 7-0-0 this season but went 1-2-1 against the Sabres last season. Even though the Sabres have a much different roster and a new coach this season, the Canadiens are not looking past them.

"They're going to be a hard-working team, that's for sure," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. "They've got a lot of skill, especially new faces up front, and those are guys that if you give them any free time or space they're going to put the puck in the back of your net. Obviously a team like this has a lot to prove, so their intensity level is going to be there so we have to make sure to match that."