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

After a three-game Canadian road trip, the Buffalo Sabres return home to KeyBank Center for Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. 

This will be the final home game for Buffalo until Nov. 4, as the Sabres will then begin a road trip to the nation’s capital and California. 

The Sabres have earned points in each of their last four games, collecting six out of a possible eight against all Atlantic Division opponents. This time around, a Metropolitan Division foe will come to town – the Flyers struggled right out of the gate, going winless in their first nine games (0-7-2), but have now strung together two consecutive wins. 

Buffalo has had four days to digest its latest overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, yet another instance of overcoming a two-goal deficit to salvage a point. That’s been a running theme for the 4-3-2 Sabres, who’ve trailed by two or more goals in all but one game and have erased two-goal deficits in five games. 

“We can see when we’re down a couple goals, that’s when we play our best hockey,” Rasmus Dahlin said at practice on Monday. “So, we’ve got to make sure we have better starts to the game – (better) first halves, and don’t let the other team come into games – because it’s mentally hard to have to come back every game. We’ve got to flip it around a little bit.” 

As of late, the Sabres have been missing their captain due to an upper-body injury he sustained in Buffalo’s last home game on Oct. 12. The Sabres have also missed veteran forward Jason Zucker, who’s been out since the start of training camp recovering from sports hernia surgery. 

The good news for Buffalo? Both are expected to play against Philadelphia. 

• Tuesday’s practice: Sabres welcome Zucker’s scoring, energy, experience back into lineup 

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the 7:30 p.m. puck drop.

How to watch

TV (national): TNT, truTV

Streaming: HBO Max

Radio: WGR 550 / Buffalo Sabres App

More ways to watch/listen to Sabres games

Lineup notes

Naturally, Zucker’s and Dahlin’s returns headline the lineup notes for the Sabres. But Colten Ellis occupied the starter’s crease at Tuesday’s practice, potentially signaling his first start since getting pulled in Buffalo’s eventual win over the Florida Panthers nine days ago. He didn’t play on the Canada road trip. 

Zucker spent much of last year at the net front on Buffalo’s first power-play unit, but with Dahlin rejoining the top unit that had three man-advantage goals in two games before his absence, Ruff is inclined to keep them together – for now. 

“The unit before (Dahlin) got hurt that scored three goals, I think we’ll start them off in one unit,” he said. “We might just tweak those units … Again, we’ve got some moving pieces that we're going to have to find out about.”

Here are the lines from Tuesday's practice. Check back during 7 p.m. warmups for potential updates.

Notable numbers 

• Zach Benson is currently on a four-game point streak, tallying five points (all assists) over that span. Benson has tied his second-longest regular season career point streak, his longest being a five-game stretch in April during which he collected seven points (3+4). 

• The Sabres’ nine goals from defensemen in 2026-27 tie them for first in the NHL, helped by last Thursday’s performance in Toronto where three Buffalo goals came from blueliners. The Flyers, on the other hand, have just two goals from their D-corps. 

• Jack Quinn is off to his best career start – nine points (5+4) are the most he’s had through the first nine games of any of his NHL seasons. He’s being rewarded for his strong start, too – Quinn has played 176:09 through his first nine contests, over 40 minutes more than he played through the first nine games last season (134:49). 

• Read Monday’s practice report: Benson-Östlund-Quinn line a constant for Sabres 

• The Sabres have scored four or more goals in seven of their last 10 games against the Flyers, including two five-spots last season (a 5-3 win on Dec. 18, and a 5-2 win on Jan. 14).

Scouting the Flyers

No team had a worse start than Philadelphia – it took until game 10 for Philadelphia to enter the win column, although they come to Buffalo on a two-game winning streak. 

Defenseman Jamie Drysdale, who signed a 4-year, $26 million contract extension this summer, is point-less through 11 games, while first-liner Trevor Zegras has just two goals (one being an empty-netter). One player who has been producing for Philadelphia is Matvei Michkov, whose six goals include four in the last three games. 

Philadelphia holds a minus-19 goal differential but has still gotten respectable play from goaltenders Joseph Woll (.917) and Dan Vladar (.889). Both have one win, with Woll having gotten the most recent start (and victory) against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. 

The Flyers have also dealt with a surplus of injuries in October – forwards Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett, plus defensemen Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen, are all on injured reserve. Another forward, Tyson Foerster, missed Monday’s game due to injury.