Another big game tonight for Buffalo. Tonight's meeting with the Lightning is for a 8th place tie with the Caps, as long as Detroit does their job in Hockeytown tonight. Tampa comes in tonight's game struggling losing 6 of 7. The loss of Matheiu Garon has been a killer for the Bolts, Tampa was making a push however they now seem out of it.

Steven Stamkos has hit the 50 goal milestone for the second time in his career. He is red hot and will need to be contained for Buffalo to have a chance tonight. He killed them in the last meeting in Buffalo a 2-1 loss. Tampa has won 3 of the 4 meetings this season (2-0, 4-3, 2-1).

Nathan Gerbe will again not play tonight with his lingering injury. Good news on the injury front was Jochen Hecht was on the ice today skating not wearing a "don't hit me" jersey. Hecht is still not likely to play again in the regular season. Good to see he is making progress from his third concussion in one year.

Nothing much to report from Hockey Heaven. Sabres need this one pretty badly lets see if they bring a better effort then they have recently. Scoring would be nice.

Be nice to see Hodgson get the monkey off his back and get on the board.

Projected Lineup:

Foligno-Ennis-Stafford

Vanek-Hodgson-Leino

Pominville-Roy-Tropp

McCormick-Boyes-Kaleta

Ehrhoff-Sulzer

Regehr-Leopold

Weber-Sekera

Miller

(Enroth)

Prediction: Bolts have given the fits to Buffalo all year. They frustrate the Sabres out of their game and Buffalo cannot score goals. 2-1 Tampa