Granato said there will be no changes to the forward lines or defense pairs provided Tuch is able to play. Here's how the group could line up based on Sunday's game:
| March 7 vs. Florida |
| --- |
| LW | C | RW |
| 53 Jeff Skinner | 72 Tage Thompson | 89 Alex Tuch |
| 74 Rasmus Asplund | 19 Peyton Krebs | 71 Victor Olofsson |
| 37 Casey Mittelstadt | 24 Dylan Cozens | 21 Kyle Okposo |
| 29 Vinnie Hinostroza | 20 Cody Eakin | 15 John Hayden |
| LD | RD | G |
| 26 Rasmus Dahlin | 78 Jacob Bryson | 41 Craig Anderson |
| 8 Robert Hagg | 13 Mark Pysyk | 31 Dustin Tokarski |
| 23 Mattias Samuelsson | 45 Casey Fitzgerald | |
Craig Anderson will start in goal with a chance to become the 39th goalie in NHL history to earn 300 career regular season wins. He earned win No. 299 with a 29-save performance against Minnesota on Friday.
Anderson said the milestone was a motivating factor in returning to play this season at age 40.
"I think it's just one of those nice even numbers," he said. "In March of 2020 when everything kind of shut down, I felt kind of cheated a little bit that way. Just felt like I had more to give and that was kind of a personal goal to set because if you don't have goals, you have nothing to achieve or nothing to strive for, you can lose some motivation."
Henri Jokiharju participated in an optional morning skate and is expected to be a full participant in practice on Wednesday, Granato said. The defenseman has missed five games with a lower-body injury.
"Every skate he's been progressively better and there's been no concern," Granato said. "... I expect him at some point this week to be ready."
The game marks forward Sam Reinhart's first return to KeyBank Center as an opposing player. Reinhart was drafted No. 2 overall by the Sabres in 2014 and played 454 games with the franchise prior to being traded to the Panthers this past offseason.
"It's nice coming back," he told reporters after Florida's morning skate.
The Panthers lead the NHL with an average of 4.09 goals per game. They boast three players with 20-plus goals (Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, and Anthony Duclair) and six others with 13 or more (Jonathan Huberdeau, Reinhart, Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, Aaron Ekblad, and Mason Marchment).
Huberdeau leads the NHL with 58 assists and ranks third in the league with 76 points.
Spencer Knight will start in goal. He's 9-6-2 with an .898 save percentage.
