The Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning meet Saturday in NHL action at the Amalie Arena. The Buffalo Sabres look for a win after splitting their last 6 games. The Tampa Bay Lightning look for a win after winning 5 of their last 7 games.

The Buffalo Sabres are averaging 4.18 goals per game and are scoring on 23.3 percent of their power play opportunities. Victor Olofsson leads Buffalo with 9 goals, Rasmus Dahlin has 8 assists and Tage Thompson has 44 shots on goal. Defensively, the Buffalo Sabres are allowing 3 goals per game and are killing 77.8 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Eric Comrie has given up 23 goals on 225 shots faced, and Craig Anderson has given up 9 goals on 124 shots.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.18 goals per game and are scoring on 23.4 percent of their power play opportunities. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 7 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 11 assists and Brayden Point has 30 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3.09 goals per game and are killing 82.5 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 23 goals on 259 shots faced, and Brian Elliott has allowed 10 goals on 100 shots.

The Sabres are 39-97 in their last 136 road games and 12-5 in their last 17 overall. The Lightning are 88-38 in their last 126 home games and 5-2 in their last 7 overall. The over is 4-0 in Sabres last 4 overall. The over is 4-1-1 in Lightning last 6 overall. The Sabres are 3-14 in the last 17 meetings in Tampa Bay and 5-22 in the last 27 meetings. The favorite is 37-16 in the last 53 meetings.

The Buffalo Sabres have had issues on the road the last several years, and it’s hard to like them in a spot like this on the end of a back to back. The Tampa Bay Lightning have been hit or miss through their first 11 games, but we know what they’re capable of, and them being at home with the rest advantage makes them hard to pass up. The only option here for me is to side with the Lightning and the PL for max betting value.