Game #4

Buffalo Sabres (0-3-0) vs. Florida Panthers (1-1-0)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM EDT | KeyBank Center

TV: MSG-B, ESPN+

Know Your Opponent

Florida Panthers

Record: 1-1-0 | 3 PTS

Last Game: 1-3 loss against Ottawa

Division Ranking: 5th

PP: 0.0% (0/8 opportunities)

PK: 71.4% (5/7 killed)

What to Watch

1. Stanley Cup Champions Visit

The Sabres were better the other night against the Kings, but remain winless in the new season. Beating a tenacious defending champion is always a tall order, so the Sabres will have to be absolutely on top of their game tonight to get any change out of the Panthers.

2. More Disgruntlement Beckons

Buffalo are winless in three in the early going, but what is more concerning is how lacklustre the performances have been. The big change in the offseason of bringing back Lindy Ruff to increase accountability amongst the roster sounded good on paper and made for some catchy soundbites and video clips of the players looking gassed during training camp, but if that was expected to translate into more solid performances on ice once the season started.. it hasn’t happened yet.

Buffalo have scored only three goals in the first three games, their slowest start to a season since scoring just two goals to open the 2013-14 season. If they don’t pot more tonight, we could well see the Sabres lose again and slip to 0-0-4 and a big early hole to climb out of, even if there are still 78 games to go after that.

3. That Power Play Though

The Sabres have pretty much the worst power play in the league. At eleven attempts with the man advantage and no goals scored, there is no other team in the NHL that has had that many chances at the power play without scoring yet. The coaches might have changed, but the PP still looks slow and lumbering even getting the puck into the offensive zone, but then they promptly turn the puck over either looking for that perfect pass or else one-timing a shot off the first defender.

Having both Dahlin and Power on the first power play unit seemed to bring some semblance of stability against the Kings, we’ll how that works out again tonight.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Zach Benson – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Jiri Kulich – Dylan Cozens – Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway – Ryan McLeod – Jason Zucker
Beck Malenstyn – Peyton Krebs – Sam Lafferty

Defense

Rasmus Dahlin – Henri Jokiharju
Bowen Byram – Owen Power
Mattias Samuelsson – Connor Clifton

Goalies: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi (projected starter)

Florida Panthers

Forwards

Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer – Jesper Boqvist – Mackie Samoskevich
Jonah Gadjovich – Patrick Giles – Nate Schmidt