At the Rink: Sharks at Sabres

BUFFALO -- The San Jose Sharks are looking to end a seven-game winless streak against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

The Sharks are 0-6-1 against the Sabres in the past seven games and haven't beaten Buffalo since Jan. 23, 2010.

"They're actually a pretty pesky team," Sharks forward Joe Thornton said. "They grind you out. We've always had problems with them for whatever reason, so we'd kind of like to get that off our back and finish this trip up nicely."

The Sharks are playing the final game of a seven-game road trip, one that's seen them go 3-3-0 to this point. Rookie goaltender Troy Grosenick will get his second consecutive start. He had a 45-save shutout in his NHL debut Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

"I thought he played a tremendous game in Carolina. He stole it for us," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "He looked very confident and felt very good in the net. If that's the aura that he's got around him right now, and the team can rally around him, we feel good about putting him back in."

The Sharks will have a couple lineup changes as Matt Nieto and Matt Irwin will play and Tye McGinn and Scott Hannan will sit.

The Sabres held an optional skate Tuesday because of a snowstorm. Sabres coach Ted Nolan said on Monday he will go back to the lineup that got a 6-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Michal Neuvirth will start.

"We won one game and that's over with," forward Marcus Foligno said. "It's now time to build on it and start something here. We need to get wins and this is another game we need to win. If we can start something here and get confidence for our team that's the thing we want to do. San Jose is just another team in the way for two points."

A major snowstorm is affecting parts of the Buffalo area Tuesday, but has not affected downtown near First Niagara Center.

Here are the projected lineups:

SHARKS

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski

Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tyler Kennedy

Matt Nieto – James Sheppard – Tommy Wingels

Barclay Goodrow – Andrew Desjardins – Adam Burish

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun

Mirco Mueller – Brent Burns

Matt Irwin – Jason Demers

Troy Grosenick

Antti Niemi

Scratched: John Scott, Tye McGinn, Scott Hannan

Injured: Mike Brown (hand – IR), Alex Stalock (knee – IR), Raffi Torres (knee – IR)

SABRES

Matt Moulson – Zemgus Girgensons – Tyler Ennis

Brian Flynn – Torrey Mitchell – Brian Gionta

Nicolas Deslauriers – Cody McCormick – Drew Stafford

Marcus Foligno – Cody Hodgson – Chris Stewart

Tyson Strachan – Tyler Myers

Nikita Zadorov – Rasmus Ristolainen

Mike Weber – Andrej Meszaros

Michal Neuvirth

Jhonas Enroth

Scratched: Andre Benoit, Patrick Kaleta

Injured: Josh Gorges (lower body)

Status report: Scott is not expected to play against his former team. He played two seasons with Buffalo and signed with San Jose as a free agent in the offseason.

Who's hot: Thornton is riding a six-game point streak for the Sharks. He has four goals and three assists during that time. … Ennis has two goals and three assists in the past three games for the Sabres. Girgensons has three goals and an assist in the past two games.