A physical game at KeyBank Center on Saturday saw the Buffalo Sabres secure a 3-0 victory over the Florida Panthers, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. The win was marked by notable performances from new team members Josh Doan and Alex Lyon.
Josh Doan scored twice on the power play, once by deflecting a shot from Tage Thompson and another on a tap-in assisted by Jason Zucker. Alex Lyon, who joined the Sabres six days after Doan’s acquisition from Utah, recorded 32 saves for his first shutout with Buffalo.
Doan credited his success to offseason study of top NHL net-front scorers, including Florida’s Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart. He has recently found a role on Buffalo’s leading power-play unit and had previously contributed three assists in a game against Ottawa.
“I enjoy that part of the game,” Doan said. “There’s chaos there and when it goes the right way, you see tonight where pucks just kind of hit you and go in, and that’s part of it. You’re going to take a cross check here or there in games and not score, then there’s gonna be games where it just kind of hits you and goes in. It’s a great trade off, but it’s part of the game that I enjoy and look forward to kind of continuing throughout the year.”
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff highlighted Doan’s impact: “Great guy on the puck. Getting around the puck, getting to the net. Really, I think we’ve just seen a glimpse of his game. He’s done a nice job now being added to that power play and getting around the front of the net. I think that’s one of the strengths he has. His puck retrievals on the power play are very good. I think he’s helped us in a couple areas there.”
The game was marked by intensity, with both teams combining for 40 penalty minutes as Florida sought to break a three-game losing streak. Doan received two penalty minutes during a post-whistle altercation.
“There was a lot of emotion in the game, a lot of passion,” Ruff said. “For me, that’s Sabres hockey right there, passion. I thought there was passion tight from the start, killing the penalty right off the start, physicality. Every guy, I thought, had a good night for us.”
Lyon played a key role early, making several saves during two Sabres penalties within the first five minutes.
“We had good emotion and good mentality coming into the game,” Lyon said. “I think that’s really important for us to be in the right headspace. I think we’ve learned that in the last five games or so. It’s a slippery slope. You can’t be satisfied with yourself. Good teams continue to put those efforts together.”
Lyon has started all five games for Buffalo this season, maintaining a 2.43 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
“I’m the kind of guy that likes to play with passion and energy,” Lyon said. “I need that to play at my best. It is difficult for sure to get ramped up every other day. But that being said, maybe it’s kind of a blessing that it happened so early in the season. The body’s still feeling good, trying to just continue to grind. We’ve had a lot of home games as well, so I think that’s beneficial.”
The Sabres’ penalty kill unit was effective against Florida, stopping all seven Panthers’ power plays—raising their penalty kill success rate this season to 95.7 percent and placing them first in the NHL.
Six Sabres players logged at least five minutes on penalty kill duty, with Conor Timmins leading at 7:25 shorthanded time and recording six blocked shots.
“It’s something that we stressed around the front of our net” Ruff said. “I think you saw [Mattias] Samuelsson two or three times really hard on the ice, really physical. Just everywhere. It was a pack mentality, and it was a team effort on every part of that.”
Buffalo also improved its power-play efficiency to 27.8 percent after Doan’s two goals against Florida.
“Just outworking teams, getting pucks back, being more shot first and creating chaos off the shot,” Doan said. “You got one more guy so to go in there and work a little bit harder than them, and you’ll get an opportunity because you got that extra advantage so we would allow them that and focus on getting puck retrievals and shots on net.”
Defenseman Jacob Bryson left Saturday’s game early after sustaining an upper-body injury from a hit near the bench; he is now in concussion protocol.
The Sabres will next face the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Monday.
