Kings open second half at home vs. Lightning

Tuesday night there are two games on the slate in the NHL. The Buffalo Sabres open up the post-All-Star break portion of their schedule against Ottawa Senators. Will the Sens be able to play their division rivals tough in a back-to-back situation?

Buffalo Sabres: yearning for a win streak

The Buffalo Sabres started the current NHL season in an excellent way and for the first time in nine years seemed to have a serious chance of making the playoffs. Lately, their performance has only been unstable and as a result, the hockey team are 10 points behind Florida for the final guaranteed playoff spot. There are still plenty of games to play in the regular season, but the Sabres will soon have to ride a nice win streak, if they don't want to fall too far behind.

The Sabres went into the All-Star break with three wins out of four games and will want to build on these positive results. The recent poor results of the hockey team mainly had to do with the over-reliance on Jack Eichel. The captain is leading the charge for the Sabres with 62 points (28 goals, 34 assists) and can also be found in the top ten of the NHL's MVP list. Buffalo can rely on a strong home record, they won fourteen of the 23 games played at the KeyBank Center, six times they lost in regulation and three times in overtime.

Ottawa Senators: shoot out loss against the Devils

The Ottawa Senators are a team that's in rebuild mode this season, but that doesn't mean they can throw in the towel this season. They just need to perform, even if the results are not there this season. The Sens are currently seventh in the Atlantic Division and have nowhere left to play, the gap to the Detroit Red Wings, who are last place in this division, is too big, but they are also 19 points behind Florida and Toronto for the final guaranteed playoff spots. The only thing they can do is play spoiller a lot at the end of the season.

Ottawa's defense has proved to be the Achilles' heel this season. They allow 3.41 goals per game this season, which placing them 29th overall in the NHL. Marcus Hogberg makes the best impression as goalie of the Sens, but he started Monday night during a 3-4 shooutout loss against the New York Devils. Ottawa fought themselves back in the game thanks to two shorthanded goals in the third period, but in the shootout, the Sens turned out to be the least lucky. The hockey team lost ten of the last eleven games, so one can safely speak of a crisis.

Sabres win in regulation

The Ottawa Senators will play the second half of back to back games tonight, putting them at a disadvantage. Linus Ullmark will start for the Sabres. The goalie has a great season, so Buffalo also has the advantage in net. Moreover, striker Jeff Skinner returns to the lineup after an absence of ten games. If the Sabres want to continue their battle for a playoff ticket, they simply can't lose any points against the Senators tonight.