Sharpen Up: September 22, 2018

The final home preseason game is tonight as the Sabres host Toronto at KeyBank Center. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and you can buy your tickets right here.
Sportsnet's feed of the game will also air on MSG tonight and you can listen to Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray's broadcast if you tune your radio to WGR 550.
Three more preseason games are on the way next week before the season opener on Oct. 4 against the Bruins at KeyBank Center.
Here's what you need to know.

Projected lineup

There might be some changes, but this is pretty much what you should expect to see tonight for Buffalo:
53 Jeff Skinner - 9 Jack Eichel - 29 Jason Pominville
71 Evan Rodrigues - 10 Patrik Berglund - 23 Sam Reinhart
95 Justin Bailey - 22 Johan Larsson - 21 Kyle Okposo
20 Scott Wilson -51 Kyle Criscuolo - 65 Danny O'Regan / 64 Tyler Randell
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 19 Jake McCabe
82 Nathan Beaulieu - 4 Zach Bogosian
33 William Borgen
40 Carter Hutton
31 Scott Wedgewood
50 Michael Houser
For Toronto, the headliners are Auston Matthews, Patrick Marleau, Frederik Andersen and former Sabre Tyler Ennis:

About last night

From the game recap (and you can read more here):
Linus Ullmark offered the most succinct description of the way the Buffalo Sabres began their game at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night.
"We were off to a really good start," the goaltender said. "And then it turned into a bad start."

Andrew Oglevie opened the scoring for the Sabres thirty seconds into the contest, only to see the Toronto Maple Leafs answer with a barrage of three goals over the next 3:11. The end result was a 5-3 loss, but when it was all said and done the Sabres' response stood out more than the start itself.
Goals from C.J. Smith and Tage Thompson had the game tied early in the second period. When the Sabres surrendered the lead again shortly after, they kept the deficit at one goal until John Tavares buried an empty-netter with 44 seconds remaining.

"I loved the way we responded," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "We were facing some big-time adversity there when it was down 3-1. Our guys came back and got that period back.
"… I thought our compete, our effort, our conditioning is right where it needs to be. Give them credit, they scored some opportunistic goals. But even saying that, Linus made a couple huge saves for us to keep it at one and we had a couple really good looks right down towards the end."
The names that showed up in the goal column were promising for a team looking to foster internal competition. Oglevie, Smith and Thompson have a combined 43 NHL games under their belts, but all three are promising prospects with aspirations of making the Sabres roster this season.

"We had a lot of new guys coming in here, first game, big scene against Toronto, hockey's mecca. I think a lot of the guys really enjoyed it and hopefully [they] did, because I did," Ullmark said. "Even though we came out with a loss, it was a lot of fun.
"It sucks that we lose, I never want to go home with a loss, but we've got to be humble and just got with the flow, you know? It was something that was definitely a learning experience."