SUNRISE, Fla. – Aaron Dell shook his glove hand in approval as his Buffalo Sabres teammates celebrated at the other end of the ice after scoring the opening goal Thursday night in FLA Live Arena.
Moments earlier, Dell made a pair of saves to help kill a Florida Panthers power play, holding one of the top teams in the league off the scoreboard in a pivotal Atlantic Division matchup on the road. It was the beginning of a roller coaster evening for the Sabres, but they experienced calamity long before puck drop.
SUNRISE, Fla. – Unaffected by Covid-19 for the first quarter of the season, the Buffalo Sabr…
Dustin Tokarski, the club’s starting goalie since Craig Anderson was sidelined with an upper-body injury last month, was placed on the Covid-19 protocol list and prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was summoned from Rochester. Dell was possibly playing to keep his roster spot because earlier Thursday, the club acquired goalie Malcolm Subban, a 27-year-old with 82 games of NHL experience.
Another round of testing for the Sabres’ traveling party cleared everyone else on the roster and the Sabres overcame that encounter with adversity to build a three-goal lead, only to fall apart in the final 40 minutes and lose to the Panthers 7-4.
The Sabres (8-12-3) are winless in seven of their last eight and have allowed five or more goals in seven of their last 10, while the Panthers (16-4-3) improved to 13-1 at home.
"They’ve been doing it to a lot of teams this year," said Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt after he scored in his return from a 21-game absence. "I just think at some point when they’re coming after us, we’ve got to fight back and I think that’s about it. Stop the bleeding. It’s been kind of a sour spot for a lot of years, so that’s on us as players."
The Panthers are generating a buzz in South Florida while playing a system that’s like the one Reinhart had success in under Sabres coach Don Granato.
Dell stopped 38 of 43 shots in his sixth appearance this season, including two saves on the penalty kill in the first period to buy time until his teammates found their legs. The Sabres proceeded to score three goals, including two by Vinnie Hinostroza. Dylan Cozens also notched his seventh goal of the season with a shot over Sergei Bobrovsky's glove at 7:41 into the game.
Trouble began in the second period when defenseman Lucas Carlsson’s slap shot zipped over the blocker of Dell, then former Sabres forward Sam Reinhart tipped a Carlsson shot to cut the lead to 4-2. Florida scored its third goal in a span of 5:43 with Aaron Ekblad finished a remarkable cross-slot feed from Jonathan Huberdeau.
The Sabres were outshot 21-6 in the second period – an indictment of their team game and not their porous goaltending – and the score was tied 4-4 with Ekblad’s second goal only 1:07 into the third. It occurred on a second consecutive power play for Florida. Panthers rookie Anton Lundell scored the decisive goal when he was given room to shoot from the slot at 8:05 into the third period, and Florida added a pair of empty-net goals. Puck management was the issue for the Sabres, as botched breakout passes by defensemen led to long possessions for the Panthers.
"You can't break," said coach Don Granato. "You can't lose confidence. You just have to keep pushing through. I say it all the time, we have to keep getting better."
Despite the poor performance on the back end, the goaltending situation will loom large for the Sabres with Tokarski out an undetermined amount of time. Subban was acquired for future considerations because he was part of a goalie logjam with Chicago’s American Hockey League affiliate. He played his best in the NHL in 2017-18 with expansion Vegas, recording a .910 save percentage in 22 games. Subban is expected to join the team for practice Friday in Raleigh, N.C.
SUNRISE, Fla. -- With Craig Anderson still out and Dustin Tokarski shouldering a heavy workl…
“We’ve been looking into different scenarios and options for a little bit of time now, and he’s a player I’ve talked to his former teammates who are here now and played with him in Vegas,” Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams told The Buffalo News before the game. “High-character, high work ethic, high compete and he’s an athletic guy who, for me, has a chance to get an opportunity and run with it. To me, it’s really important when you bring in someone into the team that you know what they’re going to be like in the locker room, so that part checked out. We think there’s an upside to him and we’ll see where we go from here.”
The Sabres’ 5-on-5 save percentage in November ranked 30th in the NHL, while they were 20th in shot quality allowed in those situations, according to Evolving-Hockey.com. Over the past three weeks, the Sabres have scored four or more goals five different times and earned zero points in those games. Dell wasn't solely to blame for this loss, but he has an .868 save percentage and an 0-6 record. If his teammates' play in their own end doesn't improve, it may not matter who is in net.
Here are other observations from the game Thursday night:
1. Fine return
Mittelstadt was outstanding in his return to the lineup, winning 55% of his faceoffs and finishing with three shots on goal in 19:02 of ice time. He also stabilized the top power-play unit. The group didn't score, but there was better puck movement. The Sabres are now strong down the middle with Mittelstadt, Cozens and Tage Thompson.
"Casey was extremely impressive tonight," said Granato. "And Mittsy sustained it through the whole game. It’s something you go in your first game in a couple of months, as a coach you’re gauging that. His conditioning was exceptional."
“Your job as a player is to help your team win and we’re in a bit of a rut right now, so you just try to keep working through it,” Skinner said.
2. Trending up
This is the best we’ve seen Cozens play in the NHL. With a goal and an assist Thursday, Cozens has six points in his last six games, including a goal in three straight. Somehow, the 20-year-old’s assist was more impressive than his goal, as he stickhandled around Joe Thornton near the right wall, skated toward the net and held the puck long enough to fool the Panthers’ defensemen before sending a cross-slot pass to Hinostroza for the 3-0 lead at 14:25 into the game.
3. Around the boards
With his assist on the Hinostroza goal, Rasmus Dahlin passed Gilbert Perreault for the fourth-most career assists (101) by a Sabre before their 22nd birthday. Dahlin skated a team-high 25:14. ... Zemgus Girgensons narrowly gave Buffalo the lead in third, only to have the puck stopped by Florida forward Eetu Luostarinen. ... The Sabres went 0-for-3 on the power play and had 31 shots on goal, including 18 in the third period.
4. Next
The Sabres will wrap the two-game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night in PNC Arena at 7:30 p.m.
