Red Wings at Sabres preview

RED WINGS (4-4-1) at SABRES (2-5-2)
7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

Detroit is 0-3-1 in its past four games and is coming off a 4-1 home loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. However, the Red Wings have dominated the Sabres, going 16-3-2 in their past 21 games.
The Sabres are looking to build on a 5-4 overtime win at the Boston Bruins on Saturday in which they trailed 3-0 and 4-1. Robin Lehner will make his second straight start. Jimmy Howard will start for Detroit.

Players to watch

Detroit left wing Henrik Zetterberg has eight points (three goals, five assists) in the past seven games
Buffalo center Ryan O'Reilly has six points (three goals, three assists) during a four-game point streak, including the winning goal in the overtime victory at Boston.

They said it

"If you look at our games, the more secondary scoring you have, the more depth you have from multiple lines of scoring, the better off you're going to be… You need as much of it as possible." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"We definitely have to know who our opponent is right now, because they got a thorn up their side right now." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Red Wings projected lineup

Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist -- Anthony Mantha
Tomas Tatar -- Dylan Larkin -- Justin Abdelkader
Martin Frk -- Frans Nielsen -- Darren Helm
Luke Witkowski -- Luke Glendening -- Scott Wilson
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Xavier Ouellet -- Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: David Booth
Injured:Danny DeKeyser (lower body)

Sabres projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Jack Eichel -- Kyle Okposo
Sam Reinhart -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Jason Pominville
Jordan Nolan -- Benoit Pouliot -- Justin Bailey
Matt Moulson -- Johan Larsson -- Seth Griffith
Marco Scandella -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe -- Taylor Fedun
Victor Antipin -- Matt Tennyson
Robin Lehner
Chad Johnson
Scratched: Zach Redmond
Injured:Nathan Beaulieu (upper body), Zemgus Girgensons (lower body), Josh Gorges (lower body), Jacob Josefson (lower body), Zach Bogosian (lower body), Evan Rodrigues (hand), Justin Falk (undisclosed)

Status report

DeKeyser skated Tuesday and Blashill said he's progressing well but won't play. … Girgensons and Falk skated Tuesday with the Sabres for the first time since their separate injuries. Housley said each is day-to-day.

Stat pack

Green (1-10-11) is the second defenseman in Detroit history with 10 or more assists in the Red Wings' first nine games. Nicklas Lidstrom did it twice, in 1997-98 and 2010-11. … Eichel has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games against Detroit. It will be Nolan's 300th NHL game.