Raw Charge
Summary
Time: 7:00 PM Location: KeyBank Center, Buffalo TV/Stream/Radio: TNT, truTV, HBOMax, 102.5 The Bone Odds: Lightning Know the Opponents: Die by the Blade After a brief stop in Tampa, the Lightning are back on the road as they head north to Buffalo to take on the Sabres and follow it up with a back-to-back in Columbus. The big news for the Bolts is the absence of Brayden Point, who is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, and the arrival of top prospect Sam O’Reilly. We’re still waiting to see if the 20-year-old makes his NHL debut tonight, but with friends and family expected in the stands, there is a good chance that he does. The Buffalo Sabres were one of the league’s big surprises last season as they won the Atlantic Division and broke their 14-season playoff drought. They advanced to the second round by taking out the Boston Bruins in six games, then lost to the Montreal Canadiens in seven. A rough off-season saw them lose Alex Tuch and Bo Byram as well as depth players like Jordan Greenway, Logan Stanley, and young netminders Devon Levi. Their start to the 2026-27 season has been a little underwhelming, mostly due to some struggles on home ice. Away from KeyBank Arena they have only lost once in regulation, posting a 4-1-3 record, but at home they are 4-5-0. It’s been an all-around slump for them as they are allowing 1.96 GA/60 on home ice (20th in the league) while scoring just 1.97 GF/60 (30th) at 5v5. A 14.5% power play in front of their own fans hasn’t helped the offense out, nor has the fact that they’ve only been killing 69% of the power plays against them. Generating chances hasn’t really been a problem for their offense as they’re fifth and twelfth in scoring chances and high-danger chances respectively, they just haven’t been able to finish the plays off as they’re shooting just 7.25%. Only Anaheim and San Jose have a worse shooting percentage at home than the Sabres right now. Offensively, they’ve relied heavily on Tage Thompson (10 goals) and Jack Quinn (9 goals) to provide their scoring on the road and at home. The next highest total is four goals, shared by Josh Norris and Noah Ostrund. They’ve yet to really find a replacement for Tuch’s offense, but they aren’t completely without teeth. As for the Lightning, it’s going to be interesting to see how they configure their lines without Point in the line-up. Last season it was Anthony Cirelli stepping up and getting the additional playing time, so it’s likely they’re going to try that approach to begin with. As for the power play, well, expect a lot of different looks until they settle on something (or Point returns). One thing to look out for is how the Lightning play the Sabres this season. At times last year they tried to bully them a little as they were short-handed three times in their first meeting, five times in their second, seven in their third, and four in their final meeting. The only game the Bolts won was the one they were the least penalized in. Even against a Sabres power play that is struggling to score right now, the Lightning don’t want to spend the entire night in the box, especially if they’re trying to work O’Reilly into the line-up. After splitting the first two games on the trip, the Lightning are hoping to do the same in the final two. If they can fly home from Columbus with at least two more points, it will be a successful trip. More importantly, they need to get back to shutting things down defensively. There have been some more strides in that direction, especially against Minnesota (at least after the first three minutes), but they need to keep improving in order to maintain pace in the division. Forwards: Yanni Gourde Sam O’Reilly Jake Guentzel Brandon Hagel Anthony Cirelli Nikita Kucherov Pontus Holmberg Zemgus Girgensons Ilya Mikheyev Jeff Viel Conor Geekie Scott Sabourin Defense: Victor Hedman J.J. Moser Ryan McDonagh Erik Cernak Charle-Edouard D’Astous John Carlson Goaltenders: Andrei Vasilevskiy Dennis Hildeby Buffalo Sabres Forwards: Zach Benson Peyton Krebs Tage Thompson Josh Doan Noah Ostlund Jack Quinn Jiri Kulich Josh Norris Jason Zucker Beck Malenstyn Tyson Kozak Sam Carrick Defense: Rasmus Dahlin Mattias Samuelsson Olen Zelweger Owen Power Zach Metsa Conor Timmons Goaltenders: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Colten Ellis