Game #59 Preview & Open Thread: Sabres at Panthers

Buffalo looking to pick up points in Florida

Buffalo Sabres (32-18-6) vs Florida Panthers (28-15-12)

Puck Drop: 7:00 pm ET | Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise FL

TV: MSG-B, ESPN+

Radio: WGR 550, Sirius XM (app)

Know Your Opponent

Florida Panthers

Record: 30-25-3 | 63 PTS

Last Game: 5-1 win over Toronto Maple Leafs; 5-5-0 in last ten games

Division Ranking: 7th, Atlantic

PP: 20th, 19.2% (41/213) [Sabres: 16th, 19.8% (34/172)]

PK: 8th, 82.4% (168/204) [Sabres: 6th, 82.7% (129/156)]

What to Watch

1. We come to bury Caesar, not to praise him

The Sabres are sitting nine points clear of the Panthers, the defending Cup champions. A regulation win for Buffalo tonight puts that gap at eleven points and virtually ends the Cats campaign. The Sabres are leading the season series 2-1 and their confidence is high now. They beat the Panthers in their own barn earlier this month before the Olympic break after falling two-behind after just five minutes and clawing their way back into the game, before winning the third period in a 5-3 win.

It’s not recommended that they do that again tonight as Florida will be playing desperation hockey knowing their season is on the line, but the Sabres know they can go toe-to-toe with them and beat them and that will be important. Alex Lyon is 2-0-0 against the Panthers this season and should be between the pipes tonight, while the Sabres will face Daniil Tarasov for the first time this season (8-8-2, .899 sv pct and 2.83 GAA).

2. Defensive Strength

The Sabres streak that saw them shoot up the standings in fall has been built on their four leading defensemen – Rasmus Dahlin, Matthias Samuelsson, Bowen Byram and Owen Power have all been chewing up big minutes (all four are in the top 42 dmen TOI) while contributing key goals and points. Lindy Ruff hasn’t quite placed much trust in whoever has filled in the third pairing – Jacob Bryson, Zach Metsa and Michael Kesselring specifically.

With Conor Timmins on his way back and if Kesselring can finally get more comfortable and start playing better, Ruff will be able to give them more playing time and keep the top four dmen fresher for critical game situations and indeed for the numerous back-to-backs and divisional battles upcoming. Kesselring had a good game against the Devils (13-5 advantage in on-ice shot attempts for vs against), we’ll need more of that from him. Just for reference, that number was 34-12 for Samuelsson, if you wanted to gauge how incredibly well Sammy has been playing this season.

3. Scoreboard Watching

The Sabres got little support last night from the out of town scoreboard. Boston Bruins won again ending the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets win streak at seven. Montreal Canadiens, who sat second in the division lost in overtime so they still picked up a loser point dropping them to third in the Atlantic because the Detroit Red Wings also won, an overtime decision against the Ottawa Senators. Tonight’s opponents Panthers cruised to a 5-1 win over the hapless Toronto Maple Leafs after jumping out to a 3-0 first period lead.

So, this is how things stand before tonight’s battles with the Sabres facing the Panthers. It’s basically four teams fighting for two division spots, whoever misses out on those ends up in the wildcard berths with some distance now developing between them and the chasing pack.

Projected Lineups

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Peyton Krebs – Tage Thompson – Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Noah Ostlund – Josh Norris – Josh Doan
Josh Dunne – Tyson Kozak – Beck Malenstyn

Defense

Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Dahlin
Bowen Byram – Owen Power
Zach Metsa – Michael Kesselring

Goaltenders

Alex Lyon (projected starter), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Florida Panthers