“It’s something that isn’t talked about too much, but keep scoring points,” Larkin said. “That’s something we learned last year. We were a young team and we weren’t in that position as a group. Now you feel like you’re in a good situation, you want to keep it going and realize how important every game is when you feel good, feel good and find ways to win.” .”

Buffalo won two consecutive games; the last one was a 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. Alex Tuch leads the Sabers with nine points (3 goals, 6 assists) this season, while Tage Thompson is second with eight points (5 goals, 3 assists). Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 30 saves against the Stars this season, improving to 2-2-1 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.

Lalonde said Detroit could play with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the second straight game, with JT Compher missing Thursday’s game due to illness and being questionable for Saturday’s game.

“I like the 11 (forwards) and the seven (blue) players on the road,” Lalonde said. “I’m comfortable. “Probably, in the middle of three games in four (days), with players having some minutes (on Thursday), I would probably go for 12 forwards, but that’s something we’ll evaluate.”

The third-year NHL head coach also said Tyler Motte (upper body) is day-to-day and won’t be in Buffalo.

“He got skates after training (on Friday), so he’s making some strides,” Lalonde said of the 29-year-old forward. “But it’s still day-to-day, it can’t be week-to-week, but we’re getting closer to that.”