Florida Panthers
Florida Panthers Can Snap Losing Streak Today in Buffalo
This road trip has not been kind to the understaffed Florida Panthers where a lack of scoring has led to three straight losses despite some excellent goaltending from Daniil Tarasov and Sergei Bobrovsky.
As the team heads into Buffalo for today’s matinee, they should be odds-on favorites in theory: The Sabres sit near the bottom of the NHL standings at 1-3-0 record with one of the highest negative goal differentials after only four games.
The Sabres hold the dubious distinction of the longest non-playoff streak in NHL history, currently at 14 seasons.
During that time, they had but two winning seasons, and just barely at that.
As they say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Buffalo’s early season power play is mid-pack but their PK is fourth in the league at an impressive 93.8 percent.
Florida’s power play dropped from 31.6 percent to 25 percent after going 0-for-5 Thursday night but it still should be an interesting special teams’ matchup.
As Paul Maurice’s charges have learned often enough, no team can be taken lightly, especially when you are trying to break a frustrating losing streak.
When the Sabres last made the playoffs, in 2011, Lindy Ruff was behind the bench.
He was brought back last season to try his magic again.
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In between his tenures the Sabres had six coaches, each of whom was expected to resurrect a once proud franchise.
Of the six, only Don Granato came close to a winning record.
The team has been embroiled in its share of controversy on and off ice, not the least of which was the drawn-out Jack Eichel injury controversy which ultimately led to his trade to Vegas.
As is common on road trips, the Panthers did not practice after Thursday’s loss in New Jersey.
Friday was a travel day.
They will have to rely on hockey smarts to rectify the shortcomings of the first three games of the road trip.
Their next real practice is not until Monday, a day before closing out the road trip against the Bruins.
“We were pretty structurally sound for a handful of games,’’ Maurice said, “and we’ve gotten away from it. You see it sometimes on back-to-backs. I didn’t think that we were very good tonight.”
The Panthers know not to take any team lightly, notwithstanding that, the Panthers are 9-2-0 versus Buffalo since Maurice became coach.
Buffalo got its first win of the season Wednesday, trouncing the Brady Tkachuk-less Senators 8-4.
Their spirits and confidence are obviously high.
The Sabres have few real stars save for big Tage Thompson on the wing with Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power on defense.
Alex Tuch quietly had another great season with 36 goals last year. Veteran Jason Zucker leads the team with three goals so far and was one of five Sabres to hit 20 or more goals last season.
In goal, ex-Panther Alex Lyon has for the moment emerged as the No. 1 and has started all four games this season.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has been the workhorse the last two seasons and has probably suffered from overwork on a team which finished 30th in the NHL last year in defense.
“UPL” suffered a lower body injury in training camp and has not yet returned to action.
If there was anything positive to come out of Florida’s loss Thursday in New Jersey it was the performance of Tarasov in goal.
Tarasov turned back 30 of 33 shots, many in spectacular fashion.
“He was great,’’ Maurice said.
ON DECK: GAME No. 7
FLORIDA PANTHERS at BUFFALO SABRES
- When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
- Where: Key Bank Center, Buffalo
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WPTV 5/WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
- Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
- Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- Last Season: Panthers Won 3-1
- This Season — At Buffalo: Saturday; Jan 12. At Florida: Feb 2; Feb. 27.
- All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 60-46-8, 4 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Tuesday at Boston Bruins, 7:30 (ESPN)
