Ahead of their game, the Sabres and Blackhawks have released their projected lineups. Both teams are dealing with a number of injuries affecting their player selection.
Sabres’ Projected Lineup and Injury List
The Sabres’ projected lineup is as follows:
- Peyton Krebs — Tage Thompson — Alex Tuch
- Jason Zucker — Ryan McLeod — Jack Quinn
- Zach Benson — Josh Norris — Josh Doan
- Jordan Greenway — Tyson Kozak — Beck Malenstyn
- Mattias Samuelsson — Bowen Byram
Michael Kesselring, Conor Timmins, Josh Dunne, and Tanner Pearson are listed as scratched for the Sabres.
The Sabres have several players listed as injured. Alex Lyon is out with a lower body injury, Sam Carrick with an upper body injury, Noah Ostlund with an upper body injury, Jiri Kulich with a blood clot, and Justin Danforth with a lower body injury.
Blackhawks’ Projected Lineup and Injury Updates
The Blackhawks’ projected lineup is:
- Ryan Greene — Connor Bedard — Nick Lardis
- Tyler Bertuzzi — Anton Frondell — Ilya Mikheyev
- Ryan Donato — Frank Nazar — Andre Burakovsky
- Landon Slaggert — Sacha Boisvert — Teuvo Teravainen
- Kevin Korchinski — Ethan Del Mastro
Sam Lafferty and Dominic Toninato are scratched for the Blackhawks.
Matt Grzelcyk is out with an upper body injury. Artyom Levshunov is sidelined with a hand injury, Oliver Moore is out with a lower body injury, and Andrew Mangiapane is out with a lower body injury.
Nazar’s Return and Other Blackhawks Updates
Frank Nazar participated in the Blackhawks’ morning skate wearing a cage on his helmet. This follows an incident where he was hit in the face by a deflected puck during a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday.
Ethan Del Mastro is set to play, having been a late scratch on Saturday due to an undisclosed injury. Oliver Moore took part in the morning skate but will miss his 18th straight game. Andrew Mangiapane was not on the ice for the morning skate after being injured on Saturday.
The Sabres held an optional morning skate.