Hurricanes at Sabres preview

HURRICANES (7-6-4) at SABRES (5-10-4)
7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Sabres are coming off a 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday in which Ryan O'Reilly scored and Robin Lehner made 30 saves. Buffalo has scored two or fewer goals in seven of the past 10 games (3-5-2). Chad Johnson will start in goal.
Carolina will be without forward Josh Jooris (soreness) against Buffalo but will have center Marcus Kruger back in the lineup after he missed the Hurricanes' 6-4 loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday because of an illness. The Hurricanes are 3-1-1 in their past five games after a four-game losing streak (0-2-2). Scott Darling will make his fourth straight start in goal.

Players to watch

Hurricanes right wing Teuvo Teravainen has six points (three goals, three assists) in the past two games.
Sabres left wing Evander Kane has five points (three goals, two assists) in the past five games and has 18 points (10 goals, eight assists) in 19 games this season.

They said it

"We're just worried about tonight. We need to bounce back a little bit. We weren't exactly enthralled with the way we played in New York, so we've got to bounce back here and just worry about tonight and go from there." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters when asked about having to play the Islanders at home on Sunday
"We've been put in this position before and we've had a great response. You look at last night's game, it didn't sit well with me and I don't think it sits well with them. So hopefully we can come out and have a strong first period and respond in the right way." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Hurricanes projected lineup

Sebastian Aho -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Derek Ryan -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Victor Rask -- Elias Lindholm
Joakim Nordstrom -- Marcus Kruger --
Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Scott Darling
Cam Ward
Scratched:Klas Dahlbeck
Injured: Josh Jooris (soreness), Lee Stempniak (upper body)

Sabres projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Benoit Pouliot -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Kyle Okposo
Seth Griffith -- Johan Larsson -- Jason Pominville
Jordan Nolan --
Kyle Criscuolo
-- Zemgus Girgensons
Marco Scandella -- Justin Falk
Jake McCabe -- Nathan Beaulieu
Josh Gorges -- Victor Antipin
Chad Johnson
Robin Lehner
Scratched:Matt Moulson, Casey Nelson
Injured:Taylor Fedun (lower body), Matt Tennyson (foot), Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body), Jacob Josefson (lower body), Zach Bogosian (lower body)

Status report

Di Giuseppe will play in his second straight game since being recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Sunday. ... The Sabres activated forward Evan Rodrigues on Friday and sent him to Rochester of the AHL. He had been out with a hand injury since Sept. 22.

Stat pack

Aho will play in his 100th NHL game. ... Johnson is 7-1-0 with a .930 save percentage in his career against the Hurricanes.