The Buffalo Sabres get another shot at turning the page this afternoon when they host the Florida Panthers at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is set for 1:00 pm on 10/12/26, with Buffalo looking to recover from two straight home losses to Western Conference teams against an Atlantic Division opponent.
The standings tell the early-season story for both clubs. Buffalo enters at 2-3-0 with four points, sitting seventh in the Atlantic Division. Florida is 2-1-2 with six points and in fifth.
Special teams have been a rough edge for Buffalo so far. The Sabres are sitting at 5.9 percent on the power play, which ranks tied for 30th, and their penalty kill is at 62.5 percent, dead last. Florida’s numbers haven’t exactly lit it up either: the Panthers are at 3.6 percent on the power play, last in the league, while their penalty kill sits at 77.3 percent, tied for 20th.
Tage Thompson leads Buffalo with 5 points in five games, followed by Owen Power with 5 and Rasmus Dahlin with 3. For Florida, Matthew Tkachuk has 4 points, while Lars Eller and Sam Bennett each have 3.
In goal, the Sabres are expected to go with Colten Ellis, who is 1-1-0 with a 2.91 goals-against average and an .880 save percentage. Jacob Markstrom gets the nod for Florida; he comes in at 2-1-1 with a 1.70 GAA and a .916 save percentage.
Buffalo’s projected forward groups have Peyton Krebs centering Thompson and Josh Doan, with Zach Benson alongside Noah Ostlund and Jack Quinn. Jiri Kulich is between Josh Norris and Konsta Helenius, and Ryan McLeod skates with Sam Carrick and Beck Malenstyn. Justin Danforth is listed as an extra.
On defense, Buffalo is lined up with Mattias Samuelsson and Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Zach Metsa, and Olen Zellweger with Louis Crevier. Matt Grzelcyk is the extra defenseman. The goaltending group also includes Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
There’s recent history here that should give Buffalo some confidence. The Sabres have picked up at least one point in four of the last five meetings with Florida, going 3-1-1.
They’ve also beaten the Panthers in back-to-back games, and a win would give Buffalo its first three-game winning streak against Florida since Oct. 11, 2019 to Jan. 4, 2020.
The Sabres have done damage on the power play in this matchup, scoring six goals on 15 opportunities over their last five games against the Panthers, a 40.0 percent clip. They’ve also been one of the league’s better teams at limiting third-period damage, tied for the fifth-fewest goals allowed in the final frame across the NHL with three.
A few Sabres have made this matchup work for them. Owen Power has five points, all told, through Buffalo’s first five games. Dahlin is logging massive minutes - 26:32 per game, sixth among all NHL skaters - while Power is right behind him at 26:02, eighth in the league.
Ryan McLeod has four assists in his last three games against Florida, and Peyton Krebs has five points in his last four meetings with the Panthers, including goals in each of his last two appearances against them. Josh Doan has four points in four games against Florida as a Sabres player, and Tage Thompson has a point in four straight matchups with the Panthers.
Dahlin has been especially productive in this matchup, with 10 points in his last 10 games against Florida. He’s also riding a four-game home point streak against the Panthers, the longest such streak by a Sabres defenseman all-time.
Between the pipes, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has a .910 save percentage and a 3.14 goals-against average in six career games against Florida. Colten Ellis’s only career start against the Panthers came on Jan. 12, 2026, when he stopped 28 of 31 shots.
Buffalo’s injury list includes Alex Lyon with an upper-body injury, Conor Timmins with a lower-body injury and on injured reserve, Jason Zucker with a sports hernia and on injured reserve, Topias Leinonen with a lower-body injury and on injured reserve, and Jack Rathbone with a lower-body injury and on injured reserve.
In Other News...
Sabres Just Added A New Concern To Their Blue Line Depth
The Sabres quietly shuffled their blue line depth on Sunday, striking a trade with the Penguins that sends Ryan Johnson to Pittsburgh and brings Caleb Jones and Daniel Laatsch into Buffalos organization. All three defensemen are currently assigned to minor league teams, so this is more of an organizational move than a move that changes the NHL roster right away, but it does mark the end of Johnsons time with the Sabres.
Even so, it lands in a part of the roster that has become worth watching. Buffalo has been managing its defense group carefully, and any move that thins out one option while adding two new names naturally draws attention in the system. Jones and Laatsch give the Sabres fresh depth to work with, but the timing adds another layer to a blue line picture that already needed close monitoring. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Still Searching For Answers As Danforth Rejoins The Mix
Justin Danforth is back in the Sabres mix after working his way through a long recovery, and his recent return has given Buffalo at least one welcome piece of stability as it keeps sorting through the early-season picture. He has played in the teams last three games and is already seeing time as a penalty killer, a role that fits the kind of dependable minutes the Sabres have been searching for while juggling their lineup.
Lindy Ruff has been upbeat about what Danforth has brought since rejoining the group, and Buffalo still has a few moving parts to sort out as it looks ahead to the next stretch of games. The Sabres are continuing to adjust both their lines and their goalie usage, which leaves plenty of room for more change even as Danforth settles back into the rotation. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers-Sabres Took A Sudden Turn When Dahlin Left
The Sabres' afternoon against Florida took an abrupt turn when captain Rasmus Dahlin was forced out with an upper-body injury, a tough break for a blue line that has leaned heavily on him since opening night. Dahlin had started this season with three points in four games, and he came into it fresh off a standout campaign in which he helped push Buffalo back toward the playoffs and finished third in Norris Trophy voting.
For a team sitting at 2-3-0 and seventh in the Atlantic Division, losing its top defenseman in the middle of a game is the kind of development that can ripple well beyond one result. Buffalo did not have much margin for error already, and Dahlin's absence leaves another question hanging over a roster still trying to find its footing early in the season. [Read more 🡒]