Sabres at Canadiens | How to watch, lineup notes, and storylines

MONTREAL – After a visit from owner Terry Pegula on Monday morning at Bell Centre, the Buffalo Sabres are expressing a unified commitment to improving their play and snapping their current 10-game winless streak (0-7-3).

"Terry cares," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "He’s passionate about what’s happening here, and for him to take the time to come here, it meant a lot to everybody.”

"I think it was just a positive meeting," forward Jason Zucker added. "I think we all left the meeting feeling good and kind of knowing that we have to look ourselves in the mirror and we have to better as players. As much as Terry and the ownership group do for us, they can’t win games for us ... we've got to go be better on the ice and we've got to get these wins.

Buffalo's first post-meeting opportunity to get back in the win column comes Tuesday night versus the Canadiens, concluding a three-game road trip.

The Sabres are coming off a 5-3 loss in Toronto on Sunday, a game they led both 2-0 and 3-1.

The puck drops at 7 p.m. Here’s what you need to know in the meantime.

How to watch

TV (Buffalo broadcast market): MSG (Pregame coverage begins at 6:30 p.m.)

Streaming (out of market): ESPN+

Radio: WGR 550

Click here for more ways to watch Sabres games.

Lineup notes (updated 6:40 p.m.)

Jordan Greenway isn't in the lineup after exiting the morning skate early. The forward recently missed 10 games with a middle-body injury and was absent from Friday's practice due to residual soreness.

Rasmus Dahlin (back spasms) returned to the ice for the morning skate but will miss a seventh-straight game.

Here is the expected lineup from warmups:

Storylines

1. Last time out

The Sabres opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game and led 3-1 early in the second period, but a run of three goals from the Maple Leafs in a span of 2:31 swung momentum in Toronto’s favor.

Jack Quinn scored two goals in the 5-3 loss after sitting out the previous five games.

“He’s worked extremely hard,” Ruff said. “We wanted him to work on some things. I think he’s really worked on them, and I think it paid off.”

Read more in Sunday’s Postgame Report.

2. Protecting the lead

The Sabres have scored the first goal in seven of their last 10 losses and rank fourth in the NHL with 33 first-period goals this season, but they’ve been outscored a combined 77-56 in second and third periods.

Ruff called timeout following the Maple Leafs’ three-goal swing on Saturday, during which he encouraged the Sabres to stick with their game plan through adversity.

“I said, ‘Listen, we can do this. This is hard right now. We’ve got to do it together, but we’ve got to believe in how we need to play to get the job done,’” Ruff said.

3. Scouting the Canadiens

Montreal won the first meeting of the season series 7-5 at KeyBank Center on Nov. 11. The game featured six lead changes and saw the Sabres lose Tage Thompson, Mattias Samuelsson, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to second-period injuries.

Nick Suzuki, who scored two goals in that first meeting, leads the Canadiens with 30 points this season. Cole Caufield also scored two of his team-high 17 goals in that game.

Defenseman Lane Hutson, a second-round pick in 2022, leads league rookies with 19 assists and scored his first NHL goal in a loss to Winnipeg on Saturday.

Montreal has dropped its last two games, including a 9-2 loss to Pittsburgh in its most recent home game on Dec. 12.

Game notes

• Zucker had seven points (3+4) in the last seven games.
• Thompson enters Tuesday on a four-game point streak, with two goals and two assists in that span.
• Bowen Byram has tallied an assist in each of the last three games, tied for the longest such streak of his career.