Sabres at Lightning preview

SABRES (25-43-12) at LIGHTNING (53-23-4)
7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, SUN ALT, MSG-B, NHL.TV

Stamkos, who did not play in a 4-0 win against the Boston Bruins Tuesday because of a lower-body injury, has been ruled out for their final two regular-season games but is expected to be ready when the team begins practicing for the Stanley Cup Playoffs which begin Wednesday.
Tampa Bay has clinched a playoff berth and home ice in the Eastern Conference First Round. The Lightning are tied with the Bruins for first place in the division with 110 points but hold the tiebreaker with more regulation/overtime wins (47-46).
The Lightning can clinch the division with regulation or overtime wins against the Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
Buffalo is 2-7-0 in its past nine games but 2-1-0 against the Lightning this season including a 2-1 overtime win at Amalie Arena on Feb. 28.

Players to watch

Sabres center Jack Eichel has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past five games.
Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"This is going to be awesome. I was fortunate to play the Lightning] last year too. I've just got to play good every single shift. ...it's nice playing top teams and seeing that we could do the same thing, learn from them."*-- Sabres forward [Alexander Nylanderon playing hard at the end of the season
"It's nice that it happened, [winning the division] would be a great accomplishment by us but at the same time we're focused on our game right now and focused on how we can play and being the best we can going into the playoffs."-- Lightning forward Tyler Johnson on how the team reacted to the Bruins' loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday*

Sabres projected lineup

Scott Wilson -- Jack Eichel -- Kyle Okposo
Evan Rodrigues --
Casey Mittelstadt
-- Jason Pominville
Alexander Nylander -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Sam Reinhart
Jordan Nolan -- Johan Larsson -- Nick Baptiste
Marco Scandella -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Brendan Guhle -- Casey Nelson
Justin Falk -- Nathan Beaulieu
Chad Johnson
Adam Wilcox
Scratched:Josh Gorges, Matt Tennyson, Kevin Porter
Injured: Zach Bogosian (lower body), Jake McCabe (shoulder), Jacob Josefson (lower body), Linus Ullmark (upper body), Robin Lehner (lower body), Victor Antipin (concussion), Zemgus Girgensons (face)

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
J.T. Miller -- Tyler Johnson -- Cory Conacher
Yanni Gourde -- Anthony Cirelli -- Alex Killorn
Chris Kunitz -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Ryan McDonagh -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Cory Conacher, Peter Budaj, Slater Koekkoek
Injured: Adam Erne (lower body), Steven Stamkos (lower body)

Status report

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Stamkos, "Our target is to have him fully ready, actually not for the game but for practices before." ... Wilcox, who will back up Johnson and has yet to make his NHL debut was a sixth-round pick (No. 178) by the Lightning in the 2011 NHL Draft.

Stat pack

O'Reilly has six points (three goals, three assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Miller has 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) in his past 16 games.