The Florida Panthers are off to a bit of a slow start and they look for their first road win of the season when the visit Buffalo on Friday night in the first meeting of the year between the Atlantic Division rivals. The Sabres are favored on the NHL odds.
How to Bet Panthers vs Sabres NHL Betting Lines & Game Info
- When: Friday, 7 PM ET
- Where: KeyBank Center
- TV: NHL Center Ice
- Live Stream: NHL.tv
- Radio: SiriusXM
- NHL Betting Lines: Florida Panthers -1.5 (Total 6)
Panthers vs Sabres Last Season
Florida was 3-1 vs. Buffalo last year. They most recently played on Feb. 19 in south Florida and the Panthers won 4-2. Jonathan Huberdeau scored two goals and had an assist. Aleksander Barkov had a goal and two assists, Jayce Hawryluk also scored and Frank Vatrano had two assists for the Panthers. James Reimer made 32 saves. Jack Eichel and Vladimir Sobotka scored for the Sabres and Linus Ullmark stopped 37 shots.
Why Bet on Florida?
The Panthers are 1-2 and come off a 6-3 home loss to Carolina on Tuesday. Big-money free-agent addition Sergei Bobrovsky was beaten four times on 14 shots in the first period on Tuesday and he was replaced by Samuel Montembeault for the remainder of the game. Ryan Dzingel’s goal at 18:14 was enough for Joel Quenneville, who shook things up coming out of the room for the second period. Bobrovsky surely will start this one.
“You can’t put yourself in a hole like we dug,” Quenneville said of the four first-period goals. “Some of those goals were self-inflicted. “Whether we’re not ready to play, you get down one or two [goals] at home in the first period it’s going to hurt a bit… I didn’t like our response.”
In his previous two games, Bobrovsky went 1-1 with a 3.53 GAA and .891 save percentage. He’s now surrendered 12 goals to start the season.
With the goaltender pulled and time winding down in regulation, the Panthers had several good looks but were unable to beat former Panthers goalie James Reimer, who made 47 saves. With just over a minute left in the game, Sebastian Aho put the Hurricanes up 6-3 with an empty netter. After posting 10 shots in the first period, the Panthers registered 40 over the final two frames.
Some Numbers
Aleksander Barkov posted two assists with a minus-1 rating and four shots on net in the loss. It was Barkov’s first multi-point contest, although he is still searching for that first goal. Mike Hoffman picked up a pair of assists. He had the primary helper on goals by blueliners MacKenzie Weegar and Keith Yandle (power play) in the contest. He has four goals and two assists during a three-game point streak.
Yandle has moved into the top-5 among the NHL’s all-time iron men. The 33-year-old defenseman officially took part in his 800th consecutive NHL game – the fifth-longest streak in league history. Doug Jarvis holds the all-time record of 964. The last time Yandle missed a game was March 22, 2009 as a member of the then-Phoenix Coyotes.
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 3.00
- Shots: 38.33
- PP/PK Percentage: 30.77
- Goals: 4.67
- Shots: 33.33
- PP/PK Percentage: 25.00
Why Bet on Buffalo?
The Sabres are atop the Atlantic Division following Wednesday’s 5-4 overtime home win over Montreal. The Sabres endured their lapses by squandering a 4-2, third-period lead. And yet, they persevered by improving to 3-0-1, their best start since opening the 2009-10 season at 4-0-1.
Marcus Johansson tallied the game-winning goal in overtime and added an assist. Johansson, who set up a goal by Jeff Skinner in the contest, has generated two goals and two assists during a three-game point streak. Skinner scored his third goal of the season, giving the Sabres a 4-2 lead just 47 seconds into the third period. Skinner has scored in each of the past three games.
Jack Eichel scored two goals and added two assists. It was the sixth game of his career with at least four points and his first since Dec. 16, 2018 at Boston. Eichel now sits at three goals and seven points through four games.
Former No. 1 overall pick Rasmus Dahlin extended his point streak to four straight games with a pair of assists. He currently leads all blueliners with seven points. Dahlin’s four-game point streak is the third-longest streak by a teenage defensemen to open a season in NHL history.
Rookie Victor Olofsson matched an NHL record in becoming the fourth NHL player to score his first six career goals on the power play. With two power-play goals, the Sabres have scored multiple power-play tallies in three straight games for the first time since March 4 to 7, 2009.
Carter Hutton allowed four goals on 27 shots to improve to 3-0-0 on the young season with a 2.32 goals-against-average and a .908 save percentage.
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 4.33
- Shots: 31.67
- PP/PK Percentage: 60.00
- Goals: 2.33
- Shots: 31.00
- PP/PK Percentage: 30.00
Panthers vs Sabres NHL Betting Trends
- Favorite is 7-2 in the last 9 meetings
- Over is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings in Buffalo
- Panthers are 3-11 SU in their last 14 games played in October
- The total has gone OVER in 5 of Florida’s last 6 games on the road
- Sabres are 5-1 SU in their last 6 games against an opponent in the East conference
- The total has gone OVER in 4 of Buffalo’s last 6 games at home
Expert Final Score Prediction for Panthers vs Sabres
Florida Panthers 2 – Buffalo Sabres 4
