OTT-BUF

SENATORS (17-23-9) at SABRES (22-20-7)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, MSG-B, RDS, TSN5, NHL.TV

The forward, who has 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in 39 games, missed the past 10 games with an upper-body injury.
The Sabres have won three of their past four games and will play nine of their next 10 at home, where they are 14-6-3.
Craig Anderson will start for the Senators, who are 1-5-5 in their past 11 games following a 4-3 shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils on Monday. Ottawa is 1-5-0 in its past six games at Buffalo.

Players to watch

Senators forward Connor Brown has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak.
Sabres center Jack Eichel has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games.

They said it

"I don't think we had enough guys play their best game. In saying that, we did have a lot of guys that did work. If you look, individually, there were some guys that really played hard. We need more guys, but we're coming off the break. Guys were rusty, for sure."-- Senators coach D.J. Smith
"He's got a good spirit here, like everybody else. They've come out of the break with a lot of energy and we need to put it into play here today. Jeff, of course, we need him to add to our scoring. We need depth, we need more offense throughout the lineup and Jeff's a threat to do that every night." -- Sabres coach Ralph Krueger on Jeff Skinner

Senators projected lineup
Sabres projected lineup
Status report

Skinner will skate on the second line with Johansson and Frolik. ... Sabourin replaces Boedker.

Stat pack

Okposo needs one point for 500 in the NHL. … Reinhart has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past eight games. … Namestnikov has scored a goal in each of his past three games. … Pageau leads the Senators with 11 goals on the road.