Left wing Evander Kane will return to the Buffalo Sabres' lineup after he missed their 3-2 win against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday with an illness. Kane has six goals and five assists in his past 11 games and leads the Sabres with 17 even-strength goals. "Usually I'm able to play through the cold or the flu, but unfortunately in Ottawa it overtook pretty rapidly and pretty vigorously, so it was tough," Kane said. "I'm feeling better today and I'm looking to get back on track here." Center Ryan O'Reilly has two goals and three assists in his past five games and faces his former team for the third time. "They've got a lot of great players over there and they're a good team," O'Reilly said. "I guess it's a lot of bad bounces. I haven't been watching them too much, but seeing them that low in the standings, it's surprising." The Sabres are five points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They're 1-10-2 in Thursday games, including 0-5-2 in their past seven, but 10-3-3 in Tuesday games. "Tuesdays have been a good day for us and Thursday has been a day we'd like to be Tuesday," coach Dan Blysma said. Goalie Robin Lehner will start.