Sabres at Stars preview

SABRES (25-18-6) at STARS (24-21-4)
8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW+, MSG-B, NHL.TV

Buffalo returned from its mandatory five-day break before 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend with a 5-4 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. It was their 25th victory of the season in their 49th game; they won 25 of 82 games last season.
Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak will play his first game for the Stars since Dec. 9, 2017. He was acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. The Stars traded Oleksiak to the Penguins on Dec. 19, 2017.

Players to watch

Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had two assists Tuesday and has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past seven games.
Stars goalie Ben Bishop is 10-0-1 with a 1.61 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage in 11 games against the Sabres.

They said it

"We've done pretty good on back-to-back games (5-2-2 in second games), but we've got to refocus and get set to play a tough team." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley
"Communication is the big thing. Talking to your partner and other guys in certain situations so you know what to do. Keeping it simple for the first couple games." -- Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak

Sabres projected lineup

Jeff Skinner -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Conor Sheary -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Evan Rodrigues
Tage Thompson -- Vladimir Sobotka -- Remi Elie
Zemgus Girgensons -- Johan Larsson -- Kyle Okposo
Rasmus Dahlin -- Zach Bogosian
Jake McCabe -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Marco Scandella -- Nathan Beaulieu
Linus Ullmark
Carter Hutton
Scratched: Jason Pominville, Lawrence Pilut, Matt Hunwick
Injured:Casey Nelson (upper body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Andrew Cogliano -- Jason Dickinson -- Jason Spezza
Denis Gurianov -- Roope Hintz -- Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak -- Taylor Fedun
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Julius Honka, Connor Carrick, Valeri Nichushkin
Injured:Stephen Johns (upper body), Marc Methot (lower body), Martin Hanzal (back), Tyler Pitlick (upper body)

Status report

Gurianov was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League on Wednesday but wasn't on the ice for the morning skate. … Nichushkin missed the previous two games with an upper-body injury.

Stat pack

Rodrigues has an NHL career-best four-game goal streak. … Seguin has two points (one goal, one assist) in his past four games after having 11 points (six goals, five assists) during a seven-game point streak.