Sabres at Rangers

SABRES (6-19-4) at RANGERS (13-13-4)

Sabres projected lineup
Taylor Hall -- Dylan Cozens -- Sam Reinhart
Victor Olofsson -- Eric Staal -- Tage Thompson
Jeff Skinner -- Curtis Lazar -- Casey Mittelstadt
Rasmus Asplund -- Riley Sheahan - Tobias Rieder
Jacob Bryson -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin -- Colin Miller
Henri Jokiharju -- Brandon Montour
Carter Hutton
Dustin Tokarski
Scratched:Cody Eakin, Matt Irwin
Injured:Jack Eichel (upper body), Linus Ullmark (lower body), Will Borgen (forearm), Kyle Okposo (undisclosed)
Rangers projected lineup
Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Colin Blackwell
Alexis Lafreniere -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Lemieux -- Kevin Rooney -- Julien Gauthier
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller -- Jacob Trouba
Libor Hajek -- Brendan Smith
Keith Kinkaid
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched:None
Injured: Igor Shesterkin (lower body), Anthony Bitetto (lower body)
COVID-19 protocol:Phillip Di Giuseppe, Brett Howden
Status report
Kris Knoblauch, the coach of the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford, will be New York's acting coach for the fourth straight game because David Quinn remains in NHL COVID-19 protocol along with assistants Jacques Martin, David Oliver and Greg Brown. Hartford associate coach Gord Murphy and Rangers associate general manager Chris Drury will again be Knoblauch's assistants. ... Gauthier will replace Howden in the Rangers lineup. Howden, a forward, was added to protocol. ... Cozens will return for the Sabres after missing four straight games with an upper-body injury. ... Asplund and Tokarski were recalled from the taxi squad. Okposo is being evaluated in Buffalo after he was injured in practice.