Panthers at Sabres preview

PANTHERS (4-8-2) at SABRES (5-8-2)
7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-F, NHL.TV

In 29 games against the Sabres, Luongo is 18-8-2 with a .933 save percentage and five shutouts.
The Panthers have lost five straight games (0-3-2) and are 2-7-2 in their past 11. They will have defenseman Mike Matheson back in the lineup after he missed a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday because of an upper-body injury.
The Sabres are 4-3-0 in their past seven games after a 1-5-2 start and are trying to win consecutive games for the second time this season. They will get defenseman Nathan Beaulieu back in the lineup after he missed the past seven games because of an upper-body injury.

Players to watch

Panthers center Vincent Trocheck has nine points (four goals, five assists) in the past six games and has scored a goal in three straight games.
Sabres center Ryan O'Reilly has five points (two goals, three assists) in the past four games.

They said it

"Even though we're going through a struggle a little bit right now, we're still trying to draw on the positives. You can't control what's happened. Obviously you can learn from [that] and that's what we're trying to do every day and we're trying to get better every day and that's sort of what the state of our game is right now." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner
"I feel we all knew as the season went on we were better than our record has been showing. I think things are starting to click and the hockey gods are a little more on our side than they were at the beginning." -- Sabres defenseman Nathan Beaulieu on the team's 2-1-0 record in the past three home games

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evgenii Dadonov
Connor Brickley -- Vincent Trocheck -- Radim Vrbata
Jamie McGinn -- Nick Bjugstad -- Colton Sceviour
Dryden Hunt
-- Derek MacKenzie -- Micheal Haley
Keith Yandle -- Aaron Ekblad
Mike Matheson -- Mark Pysyk
Ian McCoshen -- MacKenzie Weegar
Roberto Luongo
James Reimer
Scratched: Alexander Petrovic, Antti Niemi
Injured:Jared McCann (lower body)

Sabres projected lineup

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

Status report

Hunt will make his NHL debut for the Panthers. He was signed as an undrafted free agent March 2, 2016. … Gorges has practiced each day since Tuesday and is ready to return but will not play.

Stat pack

The Panthers have lost two straight games in Buffalo (0-2-0). … Kane leads the Sabres with nine goals, including three in his past three games.