Sabres vs. Kings | How to watch, lineup notes, and storylines

Beginning with the early days of Roger Crozier, the Buffalo Sabres have an illustrious history of goaltenders. It’s a franchise with nine Vezina Trophies to its name: a shared trophy for Bob Sauve and Don Edwards, one each for Tom Barrasso and Ryan Miller, and of course the six won by Dominik Hasek at the height of his all-time great career.

Yet none of those goalies accomplished what Alex Lyon has since mid-December: nine straight wins, tying Gerry Desjardins’ franchise record set in December of 1976.

Lyon will look for a 10th win – and sole possession of the franchise record – when the Sabres host the Los Angeles Kings at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

“You run through all those different goaltenders who have been here, and now all of a sudden he’s the one that has put together a streak like that,” said Lindy Ruff, who either played with or coached each of those aformentioned Vezina winners.

“He’s put together a real impressive group of games for us and been a big reason why we’ve been able to win the number of games we’ve won.”

Lyon’s consistency becomes especially important given the status of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who sustained a lower-body injury in Toronto on Tuesday and was still being evaluated when Ruff met with the media on Wednesday.

Like their goaltender, the Sabres are enjoying an unprecedented run of success. They are 19-3-1 since Dec. 9, the winningest 23-game stretch in franchise history.

It’s positioned them well in the standings – third place in the Atlantic Division with a six-point cushion between them and the closest non-playoff team, the Florida Panthers. But with 30 games still to play, including five before the Olympic break, nobody is getting comfortable now.

“We’ve only got back to the race,” captain Rasmus Dahlin said Tuesday, following his hat trick and five-point performance in Toronto.

“We still have lots of hockey left. I mean, we have a lot of things we have to get better at, too. That’s the exciting part. If you want to win in this league, it’s not going to be easy, so this is just the beginning.”

The journey continues tonight at 7 p.m. Here’s what you need to know.

How to watch

TV (Sabres broadcast market): MSG (Pregame coverage begins at 6:30 p.m.)

Streaming: Gotham Sports App, ESPN+ (out of market)

Radio: WGR 550 / Buffalo Sabres App

More ways to watch/listen to Sabres games

Lineup notes

Jordan Greenway was absent from practice on Wednesday as the team continues to evaluate the best course of action for his middle-body injury. The forward had two surgeries to repair the injury in the past year and, in recent months, the Sabres have opted for a load management plan to get him back to full strength.

“He’s gonna have a meeting with doctors again tomorrow and just try to figure out where we’re at with all this and see if there’s something we can approach a little bit differently,” Ruff said. “He may have to go back and see his surgeon, just to get another opinion from him.”

Ruff added that the strong play of Tyson Kozak, who’s filled in for Greenway on the wing alongside Peyton Krebs and Beck Malenstyn, has afforded the team extra time to evaluate Greenway.

“Greenway could play, but he’s really being hampered,” Ruff said. “So, the way we look at it, we’re healthy, we’ve got an extra guy.”

Here’s how the Sabres lined up for Wednesday’s practice:

Quick hits

• Tage Thompson enters the night on a four-game point streak with three goals and two assists in that span.
• Dahlin is two assists shy of tying Don Luce (310) for seventh most in Sabres history.
• Mattias Samuelsson has tallied at least one assist in each of the last four games, including three in Toronto on Tuesday. A point tonight would mark the longest streak of his career.

Scouting the Kings

Los Angeles has won three straight games following a 3-1 victory in Detroit on Tuesday. Anton Forsberg stopped 26 of 27 shots in that game, improving to 3-0-1 with a .939 save percentage in his last four starts.

The Kings’ winning streak has been fueled in part by fourth-line offensive contributions, with 23-year-old center Samuel Helenius (1+2) and journeyman winger Jeff Mallot (0+3) each riding three-game point streaks.

Adrian Kempe – set to be Rasmus Dahlin’s teammate on Team Sweden next month – leads the Kings with 40 points and is riding his own four-game point streak, with two goals and two assists in that span.