Preview: Red Wings face Buffalo on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The Detroit Red Wings pulled away from the Buffalo Sabres at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday night for their first shutout win of the season. Less than 48 hours later, Detroit will look to complete the regular season sweep against its Atlantic Division rivals, this time in upstate New York.
The Red Wings and Sabres will go head-to-head in a rare 1 p.m. puck drop from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Broadcast coverage will be available on Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network.

The Red Wings' 4-0 win over Buffalo in front of a sold-out crowd at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday was Detroit's first shutout win over the Sabres since Jan. 22, 2016.
Detroit attempted a season-high 22 shots in the opening period and scored a pair of power-play goals, matching its season-high output on the man advantage. Playing in front of his grandparents that made the trip from Parma, Ohio, goalie Alex Nedeljkovic turned aside all 22 shots he faced for his first shutout in Detroit and fourth of his NHL career. Tyler Bertuzzi opened the scoring and tallied a pair of assists, while Filip Hronek secured his 100th career point.

Buffalo (11-20-6; 28 points) is currently 11 points behind the fifth-place Red Wings (17-17-5; 39) in the Atlantic Division, and has dropped seven of its last eight games, dating back to Dec. 17. According to Sabres.com, Buffalo will be without Jacob Bryson (upper body) and Zemgus Girgensons (lower body) for Monday's matinee.
Peyton Krebs practiced on Sunday after exiting COVID protocol, and is expected to be available. Krebs' return leaves the Sabres with one COVID-related absence in goalie Dustin Tokarski.
Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill is aware that a convincing win on a single night very rarely carries over to the next meeting, and that his team will be in for a difficult challenge on Monday.
"I always felt in college, it was really hard to sweep a team," Blashill said. "A lot of times you played back-to-back in college, and I always felt it was really hard to sweep a team because you're usually going to get their best the next night. Is that true in the NHL? Probably. It probably makes it a little bit harder potentially. In the end, it's still comes down to playing a great game. I think if we play a great game, we put ourselves in a great position."

According to Nedeljkovic, the Red Wings played with a more confident disposition after claiming the early lead on Saturday.
"It's always easier when you play with a lead. Not just for me, but for everybody in the lineup," Nedeljkovic said. "You play with a little bit more confidence, you can play a little looser, so to speak. You're not gripping your stick too tight, not trying to force things. Things just seem to come naturally at that point."

Capitalizing on opportunities around the net continues to be a focus for Detroit as they look to re-gain their offensive rhythm.
"If you want to score on a consistent basis, you have to have chaos around the net," Blashill said. "You have to score, what we term dirty goals. It's just the reality of it. It's very hard on a night-to-night basis to try to set up perfect plays and shoot at the net every time, especially if the goalie can see the puck. You want to make sure you create that chaos, make it hard on the goalie."