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

SEATTLE – The Buffalo Sabres continue their season-long, five-game road trip with a visit to Climate Pledge Arena to play the Seattle Kraken on Monday.

The game presents another opportunity for the Sabres to make up ground in the Wild Card race, with both the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders having lost on Sunday. The Red Wings enter Monday in possession of the second Wild Card with 74 points, five ahead of the Sabres.

Pregame coverage on MSG/MSG+ begins at 9:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 10. Radio coverage can be found on WGR 550.

Here are five things to know.

1. The standings

Here’s the Wild Card picture entering Monday’s games:

The Sabres can cut the deficit to as few as three points with a win and a Washington loss in Calgary. If both the Sabres and Capitals win, the Capitals would leap the Red Wings for the second Wild Card spot and the Sabres would be four points out.

2. The lineup

Sabres coach Don Granato said the team will stick with the same lineup it has iced for the past three games:

Forwards

28 Zemgus Girgensons – 72 Tage Thompson – 89 Alex Tuch

12 Jordan Greenway – 24 Dylan Cozens – 9 Zach Benson

53 Jeff Skinner – 19 Peyton Krebs – 77 JJ Peterka

50 Eric Robinson – 17 Tyson Jost – 71 Victor Olofsson

Defensemen

4 Bowen Byram – 26 Rasmus Dahlin

25 Owen Power – 10 Henri Jokiharju

78 Jacob Bryson – 75 Connor Clifton

Goaltenders

1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

31 Eric Comrie

3. In the crease

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will start in goal for the 25th time in the last 28 games. Granato said the plan will likely be to start Devon Levi – who was recalled Saturday and joined the team for practice on Sunday – in the second game of the back-to-back set in Vancouver on Tuesday, though he added that the team will wait to evaluate Luukkonen’s workload against the Kraken before making that decision final.

4. Bryson, Clifton building chemistry

Jacob Bryson and Connor Clifton have settled in as a pair in the five games since the Sabres added Bowen Bryam to its defense corps on March 6. Their last two games have been their best from a statistical standpoint, with the Sabres having generated a combined 23-8 edge in shot attempts in 17:53 with Bryson and Clifton sharing the ice at 5-on-5 in their win over the Islanders on Thursday and loss in Detroit on Saturday.

“I like that they’ve settled into a pair,” Granato said. “They look good together. They [have] complementary skillsets and reading plays together, it takes time for a defenseman. … Those two guys have developed a nice chemistry.”

5. Scouting the Kraken

The Sabres outshot the Kraken 38-26 when the two teams met in Buffalo on Jan. 9 but lost 5-2. Joey Daccord – who will get the start Monday – made 36 saves for the Kraken.

The Kraken are 5-0-0 against the Sabres since entering the league for the 2021-22 season.

“They play a very physical, very intense, very high-paced game with a lot of pressure,” Granato said. “We’ve got to obviously prepare for that. … We played really well specifically early and didn’t convert on chances in our last game (against the Kraken) at home. And obviously that’s a big part of the game, converting.”

Seattle has lost three of its last four games and sits 11 points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.