Game 41

Buffalo Sabres (21-13-6) vs Florida Panthers (17-15-6)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM | KeyBank Center | Buffalo, NY

TV: MSG-B

Radio: WGR 550

SB Nation Panthers blog: Litterbox Cats

Know Your Opponent

Florida Panthers

Record: (17-15-6) | 40 points

Last 10: 6-4-0

Division Ranking: 6th in the Atlantic Division

Conference Ranking: 11th in the Eastern Conference

PP: 3rd (27.9%)

PK: 19th (78.3%)

What to watch for

1. No Eichel

The biggest story tonight is that the Sabres will be without their best player in Jack Eichel. He remains day-to-day with an upper body injury. Evan Rodrigues will take his spot on the top line.

2. Panthers and Luongo domination of Sabres

The Sabres have lost to the Panthers in seven straight games, including twice this season. Goaltender Roberto Luongo has also dominated the Sabres in his career. He’s 20-8-2 against them with a .934 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average in his career.

3. Lineup Changes

Linus Ullmark will be back between the pipes for the Sabres after recording a shutout in his last appearance. Lawrence Pilut and Remi Elie will also get back in the lineup tonight.

Buffalo Sabres

Forward

Jeff Skinner – Evan Rodrigues – Sam Reinhart

Conor Sheary – Vladimir Sobotka – Tage Thompson

C.J. Smith – Johan Larsson – Kyle Okposo

Remi Elie – Casey Mittelstadt – Jason Pominville

Defense

Jake McCabe – Rasmus Ristolainen

Lawrence Pilut – Zach Bogosian

Rasmus Dahlin – Marco Scandella

Starting Goaltender: Linus Ullmark

Florida Panthers

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau – Aleksander Barkov – Evgenii Dadonov

Frank Vatrano – Henrik Borgstrom – Mike Hoffman

Troy Brouwer – Jared McCann – Denis Malgin

Jayce Hawryluk – Juho Lammikko – Colton Sceviour

Defense

Keith Yandle – Aaron Ekblad

Michael Matheson – Mackenzie Weegar

Bogdan Kiselevich – Mark Pysyk

Starting Goaltender: Roberto Luongo