The Buffalo Sabres open the 2026-27 season Thursday night in Columbus against the Blue Jackets, and Mattias Samuelsson is back in the lineup after the lower-body injury he sustained when he blocked a shot against Columbus on Sept. 22. The game starts at 7 p.m. at Nationwide Arena, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal and Colten Ellis backing him up.
That is the first hard answer for anyone looking up Sabres Vs Blue Jackets on opening day: who is in, who is out and where to watch. MSG will carry the game in the Sabres broadcast market, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m., and DAZN will stream it in the same market. Buffalo also recalled Dennis Gilbert on Thursday morning, but he will be a scratch as the seventh defenseman, leaving Samuelsson’s return as the clearest lineup change heading into the opener.
The Sabres enter the season with more weight on them than a year ago. They won an Atlantic Division title and their first playoff series in nearly two decades last season, and now the expectation is not simply to repeat that progress but to prove it was the start of something sturdier. Lindy Ruff did not hide from that. He said the club has had meetings about not surprising anybody this time, and that other teams around them have improved, which will make this year harder than the last. That is what opening night carries now: less room to sneak up on anyone, more pressure to back up what happened last season.
Even so, there is a reason Buffalo feels it can keep moving. The Sabres are counting on steps from Jiri Kulich, Konsta Helenius and Noah Ostlund, three young forwards expected to develop further this season. Kulich missed most of last season with a blood clot that was surgically removed in March, while Helenius and Ostlund emerged as key pieces. Rasmus Dahlin said the group has worked really hard this summer and called it fun to watch, adding that they are bigger, older and more experienced after going through a playoff run. Ruff has the opening-night roster set only in the broadest sense, though, and the final look beyond Samuelsson, Gilbert and the goaltending pair is still the detail that will settle once the puck drops.
For now, the message is simple and the clock is fixed. The Sabres want the season to start the right way, and the first chance comes at 7 p.m. in Columbus.
