Sharpen Up: November 26, 2021 | Sabres host Canadiens tonight

It's a Buffalo Sabres game night at KeyBank Center.
The Montreal Canadiens are here for a 7 p.m. faceoff. Tickets are on sale now.
If you can't make it to the arena, catch the game on MSG and WGR 550. Rick Jeanneret and Rob Ray have the call. Pregame coverage on MSG starts at 6:30.
Tonight's game opens up a back-to-back set that wraps up Saturday night in Detroit.
Here's what you need to know.

Tonight's matchup

From @SabresPR's Game Notes:

Looking back at Wednesday

The Sabres fell to the Bruins 5-1 Wednesday night at KeyBank Center. Kyle Okposo opened the scoring, but Boston responded with four goals to close out the first period.
Fromthe Postgame Report by Sabres.com's Jourdon LaBarber:
Kyle Okposo skated down the left side of the ice and let go of a shot from the faceoff circle to open the scoring at KeyBank Center on Wednesday, a well-earned reward for a strong first 10 minutes by the Sabres against the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins responded with five straight goals, including four during the final 6:31 of the first period, to earn a 5-1 win. It was the second straight loss for the Sabres in which the game was decided by a barrage of consecutive goals by their opponent.
Columbus scored three goals in a span of 3:41 on its way to a 7-4 win at KeyBank Center on Monday.

"Tonight was a product of them just shooting everything," Okposo said. "They made it a point, especially in the first and third, to just throw everything at the net and crash. We just didn't do a good enough job clearing the second opportunities and they were able to cash in on that.
"The best way to eliminate that is spending more time in the O-zone. We just didn't do it enough in the latter half of the first period and in the third, especially."
Aaron Dell started in goal for the Sabres and allowed four goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Tokarski to begin the second period. Coach Don Granato had given the start to Dell in part as a mental reset for Tokarski, who had been pulled from his last two starts.

"Never have I been comfortable as a coach trying to say it's a goaltending thing," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "Even if at times you thought maybe that could've been a save, you still look at the things that led to that and work to improve those.
"So, if that's the case and it was a goal that we didn't like, there's other things that we can turn our attention that are within our control to become better at, and we have that opportunity to become better at it. So, this little stretch is exposing us to things that we need to target and become better at, and we will. We will become better at it going through this."
The full recap can be found here.

The Rochester Americans pulled off a big win Wednesday, handing the Utica Comets their first loss of the season.
Amerks.com has the story:

A pair of third-period goals, including Sean Malone's empty-net tally, proved to be the difference as the Rochester Americans (9-6-0-0) defeated the first-place Utica Comets (13-1-0-0) Wednesday night at the Adirondack Bank Center.
On the strength of his first professional two-goal outing, Malone led the Amerks to the win while Brett Murray and Casey Fitzgerald completed the scoring.

Murray has produced six goals and one assist over his last seven games while Fitzgerald doubled his goal-mark from his previous two seasons as he registered his fourth tally of the campaign in just 15 games.
Jack Quinn, Oskari Laaksonen, Mattias Samulesson, Mason Jobst, Ryan MacInnis and Michael Mersch all chipped in with an assist.

Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (5-6-0) made his seventh appearance in the last eight games and 11th overall. The Finnish netminder faced 29 shots, which included 20 over the final 40 minutes of play, and picked up his fifth victory of the season.

Read the full recap here.
Rochester hosts Hershey tonight at Blue Cross Arena.

New 'Instigators Overtime' podcast

Brian Duff and Martin Biron talk about recent road trips they've taken to watch Sabres prospects and their favorite concerts on the latest episode.

Stream or download every episode here.