Flames at Sabres preview

FLAMES (11-12-4) at SABRES (11-10-3)
7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, SNW, NHL.TV

The forward missed seven games with an upper-body injury for Buffalo, which has won twice in its past 12 games (2-8-2). The Sabres are 1-4-0 in their past and have been outscored 16-6 in the four losses.
The Flames are 1-5-2 in their past eight games. They've been outscored 28-9 during that stretch and shut out three times in their past six games.
Calgary associate Geoff Ward will coach the team while NHL and the Flames continue investigating a claim that coach Bill Peters used racial slurs in addressing a player earlier in his coaching career.

Players to watch

Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau has three assists in his past eight games.
Sabres captain Jack Eichel has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak and has scored in each of his past four games against Calgary.

They said it

"There's a lot of positives for us to build on. We've just got to worry about our game and put that same game on the ice tonight with hopefully a different result." -- Flames associate coach Geoff Ward on their recent play
"You win together, you lose together. You want to be on the ice no matter what. You want to be a part of what's going on. I think this group will come out learning a lot from this. It was fun to watch the Boston game (3-2 loss on Nov. 21). I thought we played some really good hockey. We didn't win the game but we played the right way, the way we started the season." -- Sabres forward Marcus Johansson

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Mikael Backlund -- Andrew Mangiapane
Milan Lucic -- Derek Ryan -- Dillon Dube
Tobias Rieder -- Mark Jankowski -- Michael Frolik
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Rasmus Andersson
Oliver Kylington -- Michael Stone
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Scratched:Alexander Yelesin, Zac Rinaldo
Injured: Sam Bennett (upper body), Austin Czarnik (lower body), Travis Hamonic (lower body)

Sabres projected lineup

Victor Olofsson -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Jimmy Vesey -- Marcus Johansson -- Casey Mittelstadt
Jeff Skinner -- Johan Larsson -- Conor Sheary
Zemgus Girgensons -- Rasmus Asplund --
Jean-Sebastien Dea
Jake McCabe -- Zach Bogosian
Brandon Montour -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella -- Henri Jokiharju
Linus Ullmark
Carter Hutton
Scratched:Curtis Lazar, Colin Miller
Injured: Rasmus Dahlin (concussion), Evan Rodrigues (lower body), Kyle Okposo (concussion), Tage Thompson (upper body), Vladimir Sobotka (lower body)

Status report

Sobotka is out indefinitely after having knee surgery Tuesday. … Dahlin is also out indefinitely. … Rodrigues is week to week.

Stat pack

Montour will play his 200th NHL game. … Olofsson has one goal and three assists in a four-game point streak. … Lucic is two goals from 200 in the NHL. … Backlund needs three assists for 300 in the NHL.