Game Preview | 5 things to know ahead of Sabres at Stars

DALLAS - The month of January has one last grueling, four-game week for the Sabres - and this one has several plane rides.
The Sabres conclude their busy stretch of 13 games in 22 days with four straight on the road, beginning tonight against the Western Conference-leading Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
The schedule also presents an opportunity: The Sabres are 9-2-1 in their last nine road games and have earned points in three straight games overall (2-0-1).
Coverage on MSG begins at 8 p.m. The puck drops at 8:30 on MSG and WGR 550.
Here are five things to know.

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  ### 1. The lineup
  Here's the projected lineup based on the morning skate:
  | January 23 at Dallas | | --- | | LW | C | RW | | 53 Jeff Skinner | 72 Tage Thompson | 89 Alex Tuch | | 77 JJ Peterka | 24 Dylan Cozens | 22 Jack Quinn | | 37 Casey Mittelstadt | 17 Tyson Jost | 71 Victor Olofsson | | 28 Zemgus Girgensons | 19 Peyton Krebs | 21 Kyle Okposo | | | | | | LD | RD | G | | 23 Mattias Samuelsson | 26 Rasmus Dahlin | 41 Craig Anderson | | 25 Owen Power | 10 Henri Jokiharju | | | 78 Jacob Bryson | 46 Ilya Lyubushkin | | | | | |
  ### 2. Anderson's milestone
  Craig Anderson is expected to play his 700th regular-season NHL game, which will move him into a tie with Tomas Vokoun for 30th on the all-time list among goaltenders.
  "Seven-hundred games is amazing for a goaltender," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "That's just incredible.
  "… He's probably stayed because he had a commitment to working, commitment to finding ways to be successful, and that he offers back to our players and our team. He's been a very valuable piece to our whole group and our group's progress. So, it's nice to be able to put him in a position to have 700."
  ### 3. Mr. January
  Victor Olofsson enters tonight with four goals in the last three games and eight goals during the month of January - tied for third in the entire NHL during that span.
  Olofsson scored his 20th and 21st goals of the season during the third period against Anaheim on Saturday, surpassing his previous career high for a single season in just 45 games. He had twice scored 20 goals in a season: in 2019-20 (54 games) and last season (72 games).
  ### 4. The Rocket race
  Tonight's matchup will feature two of the NHL's leading goal scorers in Tage Thompson and Stars wingers Jason Robertson.
  Thompson is tied for third in the league with 32 goals in 45 games; Robertson ranks fifth with 31 in 48. Connor McDavid is the leader with 40 goals in 48 contests.
  ### 5. Scouting the Stars
  Dallas is tied with Winnipeg (whom the Sabres will also visit on this road trip) atop the Western Conference standings after earning shutout wins in three of its last four games.
  Two of those shutouts - including the most recent one, a 33-save effort against Arizona on Saturday - belong to 24-year-old goaltender Jake Oettinger, who will start tonight. Oettinger has four shutouts this season and ranks second in the NHL with a .926 save percentage.
  Anchored by Oettinger and backup Scott Wedgewood in front of a heavy, defensive-minded structure, the Stars have allowed the second-fewest goals per game in the NHL (2.54).
  "I think our guys will be excited for that challenge," Granato said. "A big part of our offensive focus is learning how to, in the case tonight, hopefully pull teams out of a defensive structure. It is a really, really hard thing to do and that's why I always say offense is harder to build, and these are the situations we're talking about."