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Florida Panthers vs Buffalo Sabres
It was a tough start to the first road trip of the season for the Florida Panthers. The Panthers started out the trip visiting the Ottawa Senators and it did not go as planned. Many thought after the thrashing of the Boston Bruins on opening night that Florida will breeze through the schedule but the opposite occurred. Panthers would lose captain Aleksander Barkov for a couple of weeks due to injury and got thrashed by the Senators. They now jump to Buffalo to face the Sabres looking to get back in the win column.
In the first three games of the season its been a combined three goals from Henri Jokiharju, Mattias Samuelsson, and Alex Torch of the Sabres. Spencer Knight was in goal for the Panthers as he stopped 22 shots. The first period was another tough one for Florida with Buffalo scoring just 41 seconds apart from each other making it 2-1. The Panthers had the same issue against Ottawa in the first period going down by two early.
This time the Panthers would score first unlike the last game where Florida was down two. Sam Bennett who's been hot on the scoresheet early in the season for Florida would draw first blood in the game. Knight in goal would get his first start since 2023 after getting help by the NHL to manage an OCD disorder. The Panthers were also without Matthew Tkachuk who was dealing with an illness.
Paul Maurice tops the list in the NHL with most career losses with 682. The Sabres did a great job of managing the Florida counter attacks keeping it in check with Devon Levi coming up with great stops. Knight on the other hand had trouble stopping close range shots which haunted the Panthers all night. The Sabres would go on to defeat the Panthers 5-2 making it back-to-back losses for the reigning champions. It's still early but Florida was in this same position last season and ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
Next up for the Florida Panthers is a road game visiting the Boston Bruins.
Written by: Daniel Torres
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