Gameday: Sabres vs. Hurricanes

Live from Raleigh, it's Saturday night!
This is the gameday hub, where you can find all the latest news and information related to tonight's game featuring the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes in one handy location. Make this a regular stop throughout the day, as we update it with notes, videos, photos and more as puck drop draws near.
In a back-to-back situation, the Hurricanes will not skate this morning. If we speak to head coach Bill Peters this evening, we'll pass along any last-minute lineup updates. Until then, check back here for more gameday content.
Last updated: 6:45 p.m.

BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF NORTH CAROLINA TOOLS TO VICTORY
6:45 p.m.
Mike Maniscalco presents tonight's Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina three Tools to Victory.

NO LINEUP CHANGES EXPECTED FOR CANES
5:05 p.m.
Head coach Bill Peters confirmed that he doesn't expect any lineup changes for the Hurricanes. The lines we project you'll see tonight can be found below, and Cam Ward will get the start in net.
Here's more from the head coach.
On Cam Ward and his workload: "We'll know when he needs a break, no different than anybody else. When you mentally wear out and physically wear out, you can tell on the ice and in habits and the way they conduct themselves. ... It's easy to go with the same guy in a back-to-back when there is no travel involved."
On last night's 4-3 shootout loss: "When you leave the building, it feels like a loss. It does. There's no way of getting around that. But when you watch the game the next day and you know how well you played, there are way more positives than negatives. I like the fact that we're consistently generating offense. We didn't do that earlier in the year at times. Now when we need to mount a push offensively, we seem to have the skill level to do that."
CANES PROJECTED LINEUP
8:45 a.m.
Barring any lingering injury concerns from a night ago, head coach Bill Peters plans to ice the same lineup. Cam Ward will get the start in net.
Nordstrom-Staal-Lindholm
Skinner-Rask-Ryan
Aho-Teravainen-Stempniak
McGinn-McClement-Stalberg
Hainsey-Faulk
Slavin-Pesce
Hanifin-Tennyson
Ward
Leighton
CANES GET RIGHT BACK AT IT VERSUS BUFFALO
8:00 a.m.
Though the Carolina Hurricanes saw their season-long, seven-game home winning streak come to an end on Friday night, they still earned a point in a hard-fought 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals.
Tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, the Canes will look to extend their home point streak to nine games and perhaps establish a new winning streak.
"Right back at it tomorrow," Jordan Staal said after Friday's game. "There's never an easy game in this league. We're going to have another big match tomorrow, and we're going to need some points."
"Tomorrow is a new day and we have a new chance to win a game," said Teuvo Teravainen, who scored a goal and registered an assist in Friday's game against Washington.
Taken as a whole, head coach Bill Peters didn't have many complaints about his team's game on Friday. The Hurricanes competed hard for 65 minutes before ultimately being bested in the skills competition.
"I liked our game a lot," Peters said. "I liked our start. I liked the fact that when we fell behind, we tied it up. I liked the fact that we pushed and pushed hard."
Tied 2-2 heading into the third period, the Hurricanes took advantage of an early power play to claim the 3-2 lead, but the Capitals scored in the latter half of regulation to force extra hockey. The two goals scored in the third were nearly identical in nature: point shots that were redirected in the slot through traffic in front of the goaltender.
"We still had a great third period. We didn't give them too much, and we didn't sit back. I thought we created a lot of chances," Staal said. "We were still moving our feet and creating plays."
"I think we played well, but it's just not enough sometimes," Teravainen said.
In town tonight for their first of two visits to Raleigh are the Buffalo Sabres, who defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 in overtime on Friday and are winners of two straight. Rasmus Ristolainen's game-winner on Friday capped a four-game homestand in which the Sabres won three of four games.
Tonight's match will cap the Hurricanes' fifth of 16 back-to-back sets this season. So far, Carolina is 1-2-2 in the front halves and 3-1-0 in the back halves.
"From an athlete's perspective, they want to play," Peters said before Friday's game. "I think it's a pretty good rhythm as long as it's realistic with the travel."
Peters said after the game that he plans to ice the same lineup against Buffalo, assuming the team escaped Friday night unscathed injury-wise. Cam Ward, who has recorded 17 wins and four shutouts against Buffalo in his career, will again get the start in net.
CANESPR NOTES: Derek Ryan extended his point streak to a career-best five games on Friday. He's now logged three goals and five assists in that stretch. … Brett Pesce is expected to play in his 100th NHL game tonight.
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