It’s Game No. 81, which means this is the second-to-last game on the Blackhawks schedule this season, so penultimate is the word of the day while the United Center is the scene and the Buffalo Sabres are the opponent on this Monday night.
The Sabres have achieved league-wide darling status and will undoubtedly have the heaviest bandwagon come next week’s postseason, as a 15-year playoff drought has been snapped by Buffalo this season. While a playoff spot has been assured for some time now, playoff seeding remains up in the air for the Sabres, who entered this game tied atop the Atlantic Division with the Montreal Canadiens at 106 points — although the Sabres do have a game in hand. The Tampa Bay Lightning are also lurking with an equal 80 games played as Buffalo but are a pair of points behind at 104. Perhaps the wildest part of this whole season for Buffalo is that, when these two teams met just before Thanksgiving, we were discussing how awful the Sabres had started, and a 9-3 dismantling of the Hawks by the Sabres that evening was right around the time fortunes turned south for Chicago and soared like Artemis II for Buffalo. Starting with that game, Buffalo is 42-14-4 — a pace of about 120 points over a full 82-game season.
You’re welcome, Buffalo.
The biggest difference for Buffalo this season is likely in net, where the duo of Alex Lyon (20-10-4 record, .906 save percentage, 2.77 goals-against average) and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (21-9-3, .908, 2.56) have both been above average after Lyon was closer to average with Detroit last season while UPL scuffled mightily in the Buffalo net. Improved play in front of them has helped, of course, with a blue line anchored by a pair of No. 1 overall picks in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, further sustained by Mattias Samuelsson and Bowen Byram. All four of those players are 26 or younger and make up the top-four ice time leaders for the Sabres this season, so all of this success could be in its infancy.
Up front, Tage Thompson is the biggest name in terms of both stature (6-foot-6, 220 pounds) and production (team-high 38 goals and 79 points). Supporting production comes from Alex Tuch (63 points in 77 games), Ryan McLeod (53 in 80), Josh Doan and Jack Quinn (both at 51 in 80). Whether or not there’s enough high-end firepower here to sustain itself in the postseason is fair to question, although the driving of play from a talented blue line could certainly help offset any deficiencies there.
It’s a very good team with playoff seeding still on the line, so the Blackhawks will need to come prepared or risk another lopsided defeat at home. Buffalo’s most recent lineup is below — from a 5-0 shutout of CBJ on Thurdsay — with UPL expected to be in net while Lyon continues nursing a minor injury that shouldn’t affect him in the postseason.
Sabres vs. Blue Jackets:
— Heather Engel (@engelheather) April 9, 2026
Krebs-Thompson-Tuch
Zucker-McLeod-Quinn
Benson-Norris-Doan
Greenway-Kozak-Malenstyn
Dahlin-Samuelsson
Byram-Power
Stanley-Metsa
Ellis
Luukkonen
Speaking of those Blackhawks, it’s been an unpleasant final stretch of this 2025-26 season, with the team winning just once in its last nine games. Saturday’s defeat threatened to add some injury onto those insults but Frank Nazar appears to be largely OK — albeit slightly less handsome — after taking a puck to the face.
Frank Nazar had two teeth knocked out and has a fat lip, but he's glad it wasn't as bad as last time. He's still trying to figure out how to talk without a lisp with the gaping hole in his top teeth.
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) April 13, 2026 at 11:04 AM
Both he and Ethan Del Mastro are expected to skate in this game, which means we’ll avoid the silliness of having Sam Lafferty skate as a defenseman in an NHL game again. Toss in EDM for Lafferty on that third D pairing then switch the goalies, and that’s likely the Chicago lineup for this game:
Blackhawks lines vs Blues
— Greg Boysen (@GregBoysen) April 11, 2026
Greene-Bedard-Lardis
Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mikheyev
Donato-Nazar-Burakovsky
Mangiapane-Boisvert-Teravainen
Vlasic-Crevier
Kaiser-Rinzel
Korchinski-Lafferty
Soderblom
Knight
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Sabres
45.63% (30th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 49.15% (17th)
42.39% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 49.77% (19th)
2.55 (t-31st) — Goals per game — 3.44 (t-5th)
3.29 (t-26th) — Goals against per game — 2.95 (11th)
46.0% (31st) — Faceoffs — 45.7% (32nd)
17.5% (28th) — Power play — 19.9% (18th)
83.6% (2nd) — Penalty kill — 81.7% (6th)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 7:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720