Game 53: A hard-knock life
The Florida Panthers took a 4-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres and made life difficult on a team that's done things the hard way all year.

BUFFALO — The Florida Panthers are an absolute machine, there is no doubt. They showed last season on their run to the Stanley Cup Final that they’re made of all the stuff teams need to have to go that far in playoffs. That they edged out the Buffalo Sabres to get there left a welt on the hearts and minds of fans in Western New York that won’t go away until the Sabres ever get back to the postseason.
Thursday night’s 4-0 loss to Florida, 10 months after they last faced each other in Sunrise in a game that essentially decided the playoffs, was a reminder of how far the Panthers have come since then and how difficult this season has been for the Sabres.
Buffalo was without Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen due to a lower-body injury that has him out day-to-day (Don’t worry, it’s not serious and he may be back for Saturday’s matchup in St. Paul with the Wild) and went with Eric Comrie who last played for the Sabres on December 5. Hell, his most recent game with the Rochester Americans was January 27. Comrie played great and made 27 saves. The problem was, Panthers goalie Anthony Stolarz (who started because Sergei Bobrovsky played Wednesday night in Pittsburgh) made 45 saves to earn his first shutout of the season and seventh of his career.
It was the most shots on goal the Sabres have had in a game in which they scored zero goals in franchise history. It’s an ignominious piece of history, but one that virtually sums up what their recent run of games (apart from the 7-0 beat down of L.A.) has been like.
“Just have to go to the net. It’s pretty much playing simple,” Alex Tuch said. “It’s tough, you play a team that’s man-on-man, you have to play a little different. You have to play in and out of spots. But I thought at times we did a really good job of it, we caused chaos, and we got opportunities. Stolarz stood on his head and made some really big saves for them. But that’s when we were able to get our best chances was after a shot with a guy in front and then a second-chance opportunity. And we had a few of those, we just didn’t capitalize on them.”
More on a tough loss ahead…
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