Postgame Report | Sabres fall short in home loss to Florida

Alex Tuch scored his career-high 21st goal of the season to end Sergei Bobrovsky's shutout in the third period, but the Sabres fell 4-1 to the Florida Panthers inside KeyBank Center on Monday.
Brandon Montour, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals for the Panthers. Bobrovsky allowed one goal on 29 shots.
The Panthers pulled ahead on Montour's goal just 4:01 into the game and led from that point on.
"We just didn't quite start on time today," Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. "They, obviously, had some jump. It's a big game, and they knew it right away, and they came out and they jumped on us. When we realized we were in a fight, it was a little too late."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 30 saves for Buffalo.

How it happened

PERIOD 1
Montour crashed the net and buried a loose puck to put the Panthers on the board just 4:01 into the period.
The game took a physical turn as the final horn sounded. Dylan Cozens hit Matthew Tkachuk in the corner of the Florida zone, igniting a scrum that ended with Cozens' and Tkachuk's gloves on the ice. Cozens was assessed a double minor for roughing; Tkachuk received two minutes for roughing.
PERIOD 2
The Sabres killed off the Panthers' power play to open the period and a subsequent roughing minor against Tuch. Tuch had come to the defense of linemate Tage Thompson, who was hit into the corner by Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling.
Florida still managed to double its lead at 8:04 off the stick of Bennett, who was the recipient of a fortunate bounce in front of the Buffalo net.
The physicality, meanwhile, continued through the period. Kyle Okposo sent Montour and Aleksandr Barkov to the ice with loud hits on the same shift. On another shift, Rasmus Dahlin laid a hard hit on Eetu Luostarinen and then took a high hit from Aaron Ekblad.
PERIOD 3
Sam Reinhart connected with Lundell on a 2-on-1 rush to extend Florida's lead to 3-0 just 34 seconds into the period.
Tuch ended the shutout with 8:33 remaining.

Verhaeghe scored on an empty net to make it 4-1 with 1:38 remaining.

What we learned

1.Granato felt the Sabres did not look themselves from an energy standpoint and singled out Okposo as an example of how to overcome that.
"Kyle Okposo knows how to dig, pull that out, extract that out of himself," Granato said. "He was our best player, no question about it. He was the one guy that was the exception of what I'm saying, and that shows his experience.

"If you're not on, you don't feel yourself, don't complicate the simple. Start putting pucks to the net and go in there. Put pucks deep, make sure you're working hard without the puck, and we were challenged to do that tonight. When we've struggled, that's been the challenge."

2. Luukkonen was recalled prior to the game to make his third consecutive start in goal. Luukkonen had been loaned to Rochester on Sunday for roster management purposes after playing the previous night in Nashville.
3. To clear room for Luukkonen, the Sabres loaned Peyton Krebs to Rochester. Coach Don Granato said he expects Krebs to be in the lineup for the Sabres in Chicago on Tuesday.

Up next

The Sabres visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. Coverage on MSG begins at 8 p.m. The puck drops on MSG and WGR 550 at 8:30.
Buffalo's next home game is Thursday, when the organization will celebrate Ryan Miller Night presetned by KeyBank. The Sabres goaltending great will be inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame and have his No. 30 retired to the rafters.
Thursday's pregame ceremony begins at 6 p.m. Fans attending the sold-out game are encouraged to bein their seats by 5:50 p.m. The ceremony will also be carried live on MSG. Warmups will take place following the banner-raising festivities and faceoff against the New York Islanders is set for 7:30.