Sabres at Lightning preview

SABRES (9-5-2) at LIGHTNING (7-5-2)
1 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN1, SUN, MSG-B, NHL.TV

The Lightning, who won the first game 3-2 on Friday, are 2-2-1 in their past five games. Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay's only Sweden-born player, had an assist after missing the previous two games because of a lower-body injury.
The Sabres have been outscored 18-9 in their past six games (1-4-1). Carter Hutton is expected to start, but coach Ralph Krueger left open the possibility of going back to Linus Ullmark, who made 31 saves on Friday.

Players to watch

Sabres forward Sam Reinhart scored two goals against Tampa Bay and has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past five games.
Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov scored and played a season-high 21:23 on Friday.

They said it

"I feel both teams understand the competitiveness of [the Atlantic Division] and this first challenge between us is worth more than just two points, and I think that is why you had the intensity tonight."-- Sabres coach Ralph Krueger
"We made smart decisions with the puck and when you do that, you limit odd-man rushes, which is what I thought we did tonight. Now we are making them play from the other side of the ice and we did a really good job defending." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Lightning projected lineup

Tyler Johnson - Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat - Steven Stamkos - Alexander Volkov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli - Mathieu Joseph
Patrick Maroon -- Cedric Paquette -- Yanni Gourde
Victor Hedman -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Luke Schenn
Curtis McElhinney
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scratched:Braydon Coburn, Carter Verhaeghe, Jan Rutta
Injured:None

Sabres projected lineup

Victor Olofsson -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Jeff Skinner -- Marcus Johansson -- Evan Rodrigues
Jimmy Vesey -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Conor Sheary
Zemgus Girgensons -- Johan Larsson -- Kyle Okposo
Jake McCabe -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin -- Henri Jokiharju
Brandon Montour -- Colin Miller
Carter Hutton
Linus Ullmark
Scratched:John Gilmour, Lawrence Pilut
Injured:Marco Scandella (lower body), Zach Bogosian (hip), Vladimir Sobotka (undisclosed)

Status report

Sobotka, who was injured at 14:20 of the first period following a hit by Kucherov on Friday, will not play.

Stat pack

Buffalo has been outscored 7-0 in the first period in its past three games. … Tampa Bay is 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) on the power play in its past six games. … The Lightning have not won consecutive games in regulation this season.