A late November showdown between the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning generally

TAMPA http://www.arizonacardinalsteamonline.com/josh-rosen-jersey , Fla. – A late November showdown between the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning generally has meant little in recent years.But when the two teams meet at Amalie Arena on Thursday, it will be a battle for the top overall spot in the league standings. The surprising Sabres sit on top, tied with Toronto with 36 points, while the Lightning are right about where most prognosticators expected them to be — near the top, one point behind.Article continues below ...Buffalo enters on a franchise-tying-best 10-game win streak after defeating San Jose in overtime on Tuesday. The Sabres have enjoyed a resurgence led by Jeff Skinner, who is tied for the league lead in goals with 19, and Jack Eichel, who is fifth in assists with 23.Goaltender Carter Hutton has exhibited strong play in net, giving the team in front of him a boost of confidence with each save he makes.“(The) last 10 games, when it’s a tight game, we feel confident,” defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen told the Olean Times Herald. “If we’re down, we don’t panic. We believe. We have the belief now.”If the Sabres want to keep the streak alive, they will have to go through a Lightning team that is coming off a rare loss, falling 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. That loss ended Tampa Bay’s mild three-game winning streak and was just the second loss in seven games.But the Lightning have proven to be a strong team when it comes to conference play. While Tampa Bay is 5-5-1 against Western Conference opponents, the Lightning are 12-2 against Eastern Conference teams. One of those losses, however Josh Rosen Jersey Limited , came courtesy of Buffalo, which defeated the Lightning on Nov. 13 by a 2-1 score.Tampa Bay is on a season-long homestand of five games and will close it out by hosting the Sabres.“Being at home, sleeping in your own bed, being in your own rink, I think it’s nice being home this long a period of time,” Tampa Bay defenseman Dan Girardi said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t pull off the win (Tuesday), but we have the chance to play a red-hot team in Buffalo on Thursday and finish off the home stand.”The Lightning expect to get back top forward Ondrej Palat after he has missed the past 16 games with a lower-body injury suffered on Oct. 26 in Las Vegas. But Tampa Bay will remain without veteran defenseman Anton Stralman for at least another week. Stralman has been out since Nov. 10 with an undisclosed upper-body injury and will be evaluated again when the team returns home from a three-game road trip that begins on Saturday.Louis Domingue expects to make his ninth consecutive start in net for Tampa Bay in the absence of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is expected to miss at least another two weeks with a foot fracture. The Lightning did make a swap of goaltenders on Wednesday, calling up 2016 third-round pick Connor Ingram, who was named the American Hockey League player of the week on Monday. Mired in a long losing streak to close 2018, the Edmonton Oilers shook things up again.After swinging two deals to shore up a depleted blueline, the Oilers look to avoid their sixth straight loss Monday night against the visiting Winnipeg Jets.Despite two goals from captain Connor McDavid, Edmonton’s slide continued Saturday with a 7-4 setback to the San Jose Sharks. Even though McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have combined for more than 45 percent of the Oilers’ points this season, coach Ken Hitchcock, who took over behind the bench six weeks ago Authentic Julio Jones Jersey , continues to tout the need for grit over glitz.Article continues below ...“When you play with skill, you play with high risk and we’re not built that way,” he said Sunday. “When we get down a goal or we get down two goals, we’ve tried to break it wide open, and now we’re down three or four goals.”The losing streak has helped drop Edmonton (18-17-3) into 11th place in the Western Conference.“If you’re going to continue to collect points, you’re going to have to defend,” Hitchcock said. “In this conference, you can’t skill your way through games. You’ve got to work your way through games.”Hitchcock’s comments came after the Oilers acquired Alex Petrovic from the Florida Panthers for blueliner Chris Wideman and a conditional third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Petrovic had one assist in 26 games with the Panthers this season and is well-known to Nugent-Hopkins.“Big body, can really shoot the puck and he’s a smart player who knows when to move it and jump up in the play,” Nugent-Hopkins said of his juniors teammate, adding that Petrovic plays with an edge.Hitchcock said Petrovic will make his team “sturdier” as the Oilers’ defensive corps has been decimated by injuries. Kris Russell could be back Monday from an undisclosed injury that’s sidelined him since Dec. 11, but high-scoring Oscar Klefbom (hand) will be out for up to another month.Later on Sunday, Edmonton picked up defenseman Brandon Manning and prospect Robin Norrell from the Chicago Blackhawks for forward Drake Caggiula and blueliner Jason Garrison. Now in his seventh season, Manning had three points in only 27 games with Chicago after career highs of seven goals and 12 assists with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017-18.Three years ago, Manning and McDavid were involved in a hard collision along the end boards in Philadelphia. McDavid, then a rookie, missed almost three months with a broken collarbone.Winnipeg (24-12-2) will also have to get by without a key on defense after Dustin Byfuglien suffered a lower-body injury during a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. Byfuglien Julio Jones Jersey Limited , who has four goals and 25 assists, won’t need surgery but is expected to be out until after next month’s All-Star break.“We’re going to miss the guy, for sure, in almost every facet of your game — size, physicality, offense, zone time; If it gets a little wobbly out there, calming a game down,” coach Paul Maurice said. “But we’ve got other men who can each do a piece of what Dustin does.”The Jets, who are tied with the Calgary Flames atop the West, have won seven of their last eight on the road. Maurice said the Oilers shouldn’t be taken lightly despite not winning since Dec. 14.“Anybody on the outside (of the top eight in the conference) now is going to fight like playoff hockey right until the All-Star break,” he said.Maurice could also be calling on the Jets to take up that mindset as they’ve been held to one goal in each of their last three games and four of the past five. Patrik Laine leads the team with 24 goals but has only three in December, while Mark Scheifele (22 goals) scored once in his last five games.Heading into the finale of the season series, Winnipeg is 4-0-1 in its last five meetings with Edmonton.