Sabres Fall In Florida, 3-2

It’s not the first time he’s done it and it probably won’t be the last, but yet again Jaromir Jagr brought “Throwback Thursday” to the NHL stage.

The ageless, 43-year young wonder scored the game’s first two goals—the 124^th time in his career he’s recorded multiple tallies, and added an assist as the Florida Panthers disposed of the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 Thursday evening in front of embarrassingly sparse BB&T Center crowd.

Jake McCabe scored the first goal of his career in the second period with the Sabres down 2-0, and Tyler Ennis took a power play pass from Ryan O’Reilly and planted a bomb past Roberto Luongo to draw them within 3-2 with 7:21 left, but Buffalo couldn’t muster the equalizer.

After finding themslves shorthanded just six times through their first three games, the Sabres gave Florida six power plays and paid the price as both Jagr and Aleksander Barkov scored with the man advantage.

Onto tonight’s recap…

Play of the Game: With the Sabres down two in the penalty box thanks to Mike Weber (tripping) and Josh Gorges (hooking) infractions, Jagr buried a shot past Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson for the game’s first goal. The Panthers never relinquished the lead.

Stat of the Game: Jagr’s three points tonight gave him 101 in his career against the Sabres.

MVP: Tyler Ennis not only scored for Buffalo but seemed to play with the most energy throughout the evening.

LVP: Gorges has not had a good start to the season and tonight wasn’t any better. The defensemen took a hooking penalty in the first period that put Buffalo in a bad spot, down two men and led to Jagr’s first goal.

Three Things To Like:

♦ The Sabres played inspired hockey in the second period after sleepwalking through the first.  Buffalo got the lone goal of the frame and doubled the Panthers, 12-6 in shots.

♦ Evander Kane hasn’t scored a goal this season (he does have two assists) but to me he’s been far and away the team’s best two-way forward.

♦ McCabe played a game last week in Rochester. I have a feeling that may be the last time you ever see that. He looks like he belongs up here for good—look out, Mike Weber.

Three Things Not To Like:

♦ Buffalo’s penalty kill has struggled and given up two power play goals in each of their last two contests. It’s a unit playing far too passive for my liking.

♦ After committing just six minor penalties through their first three games, Buffalo gave the Panthers five power plays.  The worst was an interference penalty by Jamie McGinn in the third period—a needless infraction when the Sabres were enjoying the man advantage.

♦ As heralded and talented as Jack Eichel is, the 18-year old rookie is going to have nights where he’s largely a non-factor.  Tonight was such the case.

Random Observation: David Legwand being a healthy scratch instead of Sam Reinhart was a mild surprise to some.  Reinhart rewarded head coach Dan Blysma with a pretty strong game, and had a key screen on Ennis’s goal.

Wrap-Up: While obviously more talented on the ice than last year, the Sabres, as expected are having early growing pains.  Players like Reinhart, Johan Larsson and Marcus Foligno among others are still finding their role on this team.  The team is going to need more from its secondary players because as talented as he is, Eichel’s not going to carry them each night, nor is O’Reilly or Kane. While the Sabres played decent in the third period, they didn’t play with the sense of desperation over the last five minutes that Florida did.

What’s Next: The Sabres stay in Florida to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.  It’s already the second times the team will have met.  Tampa took the first, 4-1 at the First Niagara Center last Saturday.