Senators vs Sabres: Prediction, Team News and Canadian Odds

Ottawa is 7-1-0 when Linus Ullmark starts and 2-5-1 when he doesn’t. He’s still on injured reserve, so tonight belongs to the second group. Buffalo comes home on a three-game winning run, all of it in California. Our senators vs sabres pick, the team news and the early Canadian prices are below.

How to watch

Where you live decides which feed you can see. Our how to watch the NHL in Canada page covers streaming, cable and the blackout rules.

Senators vs Sabres odds

Only TonyBet had posted a Canadian price when this page was built: Buffalo −133, Ottawa +105. A single book is a thin market, so treat this as an opening number. The NHL odds page fills in as the others post.

Ottawa is 2-5-1 without Ullmark and 31st on the power play

The Senators are 9-6-1 and twelfth. They lost 6-3 in Anaheim on Sunday to finish a four-game western trip at 1-2-1.

Ullmark has a .945 save percentage and a 1.33 goals-against average in eight starts. Nobody else is close. He was hurt against Florida on 21 October, and since then Samuel Ersson (.866) and Jonas Johansson (.848) have shared the net, and the six games since have produced 8, 11, 5, 11, 6 and 9 goals.

The power play converts 12.5 per cent, 31st in the league. Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson have nine goals each, and Stützle leads the club with 21 points.

Andre Burakovsky went on injured reserve on 31 October, a day after Warren Foegele. William Eklund isn’t expected back before January.

How they compare

Buffalo finished ten points ahead of Ottawa last season. Ottawa ran the better power play by four and a half points, and Buffalo’s kill was six points better. Neither edge has carried into this season.

Buffalo comes home on a three-game winning run

The Sabres are 7-4-3 and sixteenth. They swept California: 2-0 in San Jose, 7-6 in Anaheim and 3-2 in Los Angeles on Saturday. Tonight is their first home game since 21 October.

Tage Thompson has ten goals in fourteen games and Jack Quinn has eight. Zach Benson leads the team with eleven assists.

The weak spot is the kill. Buffalo is killing 68.6 per cent, 28th, after finishing fourth last season. Ottawa’s power play, 31st, is badly placed to punish it.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is 4-3-3 at .874 and started on Saturday. Colten Ellis is 3-1-0 at .880 and has the shutout in San Jose. Jiri Kulich practised fully on Monday after four games in concussion protocol and could return.

Buffalo has won four of the last five

Buffalo leads the all-time series 104 wins to 86 across 190 meetings. It won four straight before Ottawa took the last one, 4-1 at home in April.

Those five produced 5, 5, 12, 7 and 5 goals, an average of 6.8. Only two cleared 6.5, and one was the 8-4 game in Buffalo a year ago.

Team news

Who starts in goal is an open question. Ottawa has split between Ersson (4 starts, .866) and Johansson (4, .848), and Buffalo has split between Luukkonen (9 starts, .874) and Ellis (5, .880). Rotation, rest and the opponent all feed into who starts, so these lines are background, not a lineup.

The rest of the league’s absences live on the NHL injury report.

Players to watch

Tage Thompson, Buffalo. Five goals in his last two games: a hat trick in Anaheim, then two more in Los Angeles.

Tim Stützle, Ottawa. Twenty-one points, and he scored in both of Ottawa’s losses to Buffalo last season.

Jack Quinn, Buffalo. Eight goals, including one in each of the last two games. He scored twice in the 8-4 win over Ottawa a year ago.

Score prediction

Buffalo Sabres 4-3 Ottawa Senators. Buffalo is hot. Ottawa has conceded at least three goals in five of its six games since Ullmark went down.

Senators vs Sabres prediction

We’re with the Sabres. TonyBet has the Sabres at -133 and Ottawa at +105.

Our case rests on Ottawa’s goaltending without Ullmark. We picked Ottawa through that same question on 22 October, Ullmark didn’t dress, and it cost us.

Ottawa’s strengths are real. Stützle and Batherson score, and Buffalo’s kill is 28th. But Ottawa’s own power play is 31st, so it’s unlikely to cash in.

Our lean: Buffalo on the moneyline, and the over 6.5. Four of Ottawa’s six games without Ullmark went past it, and Buffalo’s last game in Anaheim had thirteen.

Each club’s place in the league is tracked weekly in the NHL power rankings, and the NHL schedule carries the rest of Wednesday’s games.

19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC). Picks are opinion, not advice, and odds change constantly. Availability varies by province. Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 for Ontario residents; see your province’s helpline for resources elsewhere.