The Buffalo Sabres hoped that after a successful exhibition schedule under new head coach Lindy Ruff, they would hit the ground running in the regular season, but through three games the club once again is struggling to score goals. The club opened its 2024-25 home schedule Thursday night at Key Bank Center sporting a new roof and an impressive state-of-the-art scoreboard, but the result mimicked their home struggles last season.
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The 3-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings was another example where the Sabres could not convert numerous opportunities, including five power plays (especially a 69-second two-man advantage early in the first), an unconverted penalty shot by Ryan McLeod, and a goal from Zach Benson that failed to cross the goal line before time expired in the opening period.
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who struggled in Washington last season and was included in the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal this summer, stymied Buffalo throughout the contest facing 33 shots and stopping all but Alex Tuch’s second-period short-handed goal. Buffalo’s failure to convert came back to bite them, as Anze Kopitar scored just 13 seconds into the third period, and blasted a slapshot past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on a LA man advantage with 1:38 left in regulation. His empty-netter completed the veteran’s center hat trick and finished off the Sabres, who are now 0-3 and have scored three times in three games.
“You were getting a game where you missed breakaways, you missed a penalty shot, we had numerous opportunities,” Ruff said. “We’re not going to win like scoring one goal a game, but we played probably as close to our identity that we want throughout the whole game.”
The Sabres will try to get into the win column in the final game of their two-game homestand on Saturday against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers before hitting the road for three games next week.
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