Buffalo bests Florida without Barkov, Tkachuk, and Bobrovsky

The Buffalo Sabres enjoyed a bit of a role reversal in a 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers at Key Bank Center on Saturday. The Sabres had been stymied in two of their three losses to New Jersey and Los Angeles in the opening week of the regular season by Jacob Markstrom of the Devils and Darcy Kuemper of the Kings,

In their first win of the year, the Sabres received another solid outing from Devon Levi and were able to cash in on their opportunities against Spencer Knight of the Panthers in his first start of the season.

"This one was like a stress reliever. When you don't win the previous one, you hope your team doesn't tighten up. We talked about just staying with the program, and we're going to continue with the program," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. "We know we've got work to do. But I thought our guys were focused. The energy was great on the bench and I think with day off coming, getting rewarded for the way we played is a good thing."

Buffalo was not deterred after an early Nate Schmidt goal and responded with a pair of tallies from Jordan Greenway and Tage Thompson before the end of the first. They increased their lead with another pair in the middle frame that Knight should have stopped from Henri Jokiharju and Mattias Samuelsson.

Ruff’s assessment of the win relieving the pressure on the Sabres may be an understatement, as the club going 0-4 to start the campaign may have been an early hurdle that would be tough to jump over. Last season, Buffalo began the season 1-3-0 with Levi making the first four starts and did not get above .500 until March. If they hope to make a legitimate postseason bid this season, the Sabres will have to erase this early deficit in short order.

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