The Buffalo Sabres opened 2026-27 with a rough one, dropping a 6-3 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, and the loss came with more than one problem attached. Buffalo’s goaltending took heat, but it wasn’t the only issue in a game where the Sabres never really got control.
If there was one bright spot, it came from Owen Power. The defenseman finished with two assists and a plus-2 rating in his first game of the season, while logging 25:25 of ice time - nearly matching captain Rasmus Dahlin.
For a Sabres team that didn’t have many positives to point to, Power’s start offered something worth building on, especially with the 23-year-old trying to put together a bounce-back year offensively. The challenge now is turning one good night into something more consistent at both ends of the ice.
The biggest concern was in net. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s consistency has been a talking point for years, and the pressure on him is only growing after Buffalo’s season opener.
He posted a .910 SP in 35 appearances last year, and the Sabres are expected to need him far more often than that. But if outings like this become the norm, coach Lindy Ruff may have no choice but to look harder at Colten Ellis and/or Alex Lyon, with Luukkonen headed to the bench.
Buffalo tried to trade chances with Columbus, but the Blue Jackets had the heavier hands. Newly acquired star winger Matthew Knies made a loud first impression, scoring twice and finishing with three points in his Blue Jackets debut. Charlie Coyle also piled up three assists and three points, helping fuel a Columbus attack that answered every Sabres push.
In the end, Buffalo looked sloppy, and while the lack of a preseason can be used as part of the explanation, it doesn’t change the result. The Sabres are already in the loss column, and they’ll get their next shot Saturday at home against the Chicago Blackhawks. With Connor Bedard out, Buffalo won’t have much of an excuse if it can’t come away with a win.
In Other News...
Devon Levis Rough Night Gave Sabres Fans More Trade Validation
Devon Levis first rough night in Edmonton offered a reminder of why the Sabres felt comfortable moving on. The young goalie was in net for a wild 9-7 Oilers win over Vancouver, a game that turned into a mess defensively and left Levi facing far too much traffic for comfort. For Buffalo fans still tracking the fallout from the trade, it was the sort of performance that makes the decision look better in hindsight.
The Sabres return in the deal was a third-round pick, and nights like this only sharpen the sense that Buffalo sold at a sensible time. Edmontons defense was loose enough to expose any goalie, but Levis struggle added another layer to a game already defined by chaos in its own zone. Even with the final result in hand, the bigger question around the trade is whether Buffalo maximized its value before the market could shift. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Already Face A Frustrating Question After Opening Night
Buffalos season opener in Columbus did not take long to expose one of the teams early concerns. The Sabres fell 6-3 at Nationwide Arena, and the special teams gap was hard to ignore. Buffalo had chances to swing the game with the man advantage, but the power play never found a finish, leaving the visitors chasing a result they never really seized.
Lindy Ruff pointed to missed opportunities and the personnel changes that can alter how special teams function, which makes the first game a useful, if frustrating, early test. For a team trying to set a better tone than the one it carried through opening night, the bigger question now is how quickly Buffalo can turn those looks into actual momentum before the schedule starts to pile up. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Player Grades Are Back And So Are The Same Debates
The Sabre Noise player grades are back for the 2026-27 season, and with them comes one of the more familiar habits around this team: the nightly argument over who actually drove the result and who merely showed up on the score sheet. The system uses a 1-to-10 scale after each game, leaning on the eye test to capture player impact beyond basic numbers, and it will keep running all season and into the playoffs if Buffalo gets there.
After the opener, Jack Quinn set the pace with the teams top mark, while Zach Benson and Noah Ostlund were right behind him as the early grades offered a snapshot of a roster still trying to define itself. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonens number, though, is the one that tends to linger with Sabres readers, because every grading cycle around this club eventually circles back to the same question in the crease. [Read more 🡒]