GameDay 71: Lineups, Betting Odds for Sabres at Panthers

As much fun as the Florida Panthers have been having with all of these incredible comebacks lately, they would honestly not have to jump through such hoops.

Plainly put, the Panthers should not be putting themselves in the position to have to comeback seemingly every night.

On Tuesday night, Florida found itself down 5-1 in the second period against Toronto — only to storm back to win 7-6 in overtime.

A few days prior, the Panthers were down four in the third period against New Jersey and won that one as well.

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Per the NHL, the Panthers are the only team in NHL history to record multiple four goal comebacks in multiple seasons as they also did so in 2019-20.

Only the 1983-84 Oilers have done so in a single season.

Florida has 24 total comeback wins this season, second-most among NHL teams.

Coach Andrew Brunette would like to see his team simply take care of business from the start.

“I think the details and some habits got a little loose and we got a little disconnected,” Brunette said. “When one guy isn’t doing his job or is lax in the details, it kind of snowballs into the rest of the team and how we play. We got a little bit loose, we know we are a very offensively talented and we we were on the wrong side of the puck lately and got away with it.

“With a good team like Toronto, we didn’t get away with it. We need to do the right things and the rest will take care of itself.”

The Panthers will play host to the Sabres tonight and Florida found itself down 1-0 in Buffalo after the first period on Sunday.

Florida had a good start which was matched by the Sabres in that game, the Panthers scoring three goals in the second and one early in the third to take control and eventually win 5-3.

Tonight’s game kicks off a back-to-back set with Florida hosting the Sabres on Friday and playing in Nashville on Saturday night.

The Panthers come into Friday six points up on Toronto in the Atlantic Division and four on Carolina in the Eastern Conference — with a game in-hand on both teams.

Brunette is stressing that his team has a lot of things to play for in these final 12 games of the regular season.

“We want to go into the playoffs playing the right way, playing Panther hockey by doing the right things,’’ Brunette said. “We would like to accomplish a lot of different things and there is a long laundry list of things we feel we can be better at. Right now, the focus is being on the right side of the puck. We’ve given up way too many goals the past three games.”

— Brunette said that with the Panthers playing on consecutive night, Radko Gudas would not play against the Sabres but is expected back Saturday in Nashville. Petteri Lindbohm plays in his first game in a couple weeks tonight.

UP NEXT FOR THE FLORIDA PANTHERS

BUFFALO SABRES AT FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Friday, 7 p.m.
• Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise
• TV/Streaming: Bally Sports Florida
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM, SiriusXM
• Draft Kings odds — Florida favored: Money Line (-370); Puck line (-1.5, -135); Over/Under 7 (+105/-125)
• 2021 regular season series: Did not play
• Season Series — Florida leads 3-0: @Florida 7, Sabres 4 (Dec. 2); Florida 6, @Buffalo 1(March 7); Florida 5, @Buffalo 3 (April 3)
• All-time regular season series: Buffalo leads 52-45-5, 4 ties

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS LINEUP

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 10 Anthony Duclair

11 Jonathan Huberdeau // 8 Sam Bennett // 28 Claude Giroux

17 Mason Marchment // 15 Anton Lundell // 13 Sam Reinhart

94 Ryan Lomberg // 27 Eetu Luostarinen // 70 Patric Hornqvist

42 Gus Forsling // 52 MacKenzie Weegar

8 Ben Chiarot // 40 Petteri Lindbohm

18 Robert Hagg // 62 Brandon Montour

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Lucas Carlsson, Maxim Mamin, Joe Thornton, Radko Gudas

Injured: Markus Nutivaara (LTIR), Jonas Johansson (IR), Aaron Ekblad (LTIR), Noel Acciari (UBI)

PROJECTED BUFFALO SABRES LINEUP

53 Jeff Skinner // 72 Tage Thompson // 89 Alex Tuch

19 Peyton Krebs // 24 Dylan Cozens // 29 Vinnie Hinostroza

74 Rasmus Asplund // 37 Casey Mittelstadt // 71 Victor Olofsson

28 Zemgus Girgensons // 20 Cody Eakin // 21 Kyle Okposo

26 Rasmus Dahlin // 10 Henri Jokiharju

23 Mattias Samuelsson // 45 Casey Fitzgerald

78 Jacob Bryson // 13 Mark Pysyk

41 Craig Anderson

31 Dustin Tokarski

Buffalo Sabres lines courtesy DailyFaceoff.com