"Even with the amount of pucks we put to the net, we wasted a bunch of opportunities to get more pucks to the net," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "It was there for us. We tried to make plays we didn't need to make."
Following a scoreless first period, the Sabres opened the scoring when Jeff Skinner finished off a give-and-go sequence with Tage Thompson by firing the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky and into the twine from the bottom of the right circle to make it 1-0 at 3:51 of the second period.
On the power play, the Sabres doubled their advantage when Alex Tuch fired a laser into the cage from the high slot to make it 2-0 at 8:44. Keeping the Panthers off the board later in the period, Anderson stacked the pads to deny Ryan Lomberg on a grade-A scoring chance.
That stop was one of 15 high-danger saves for Anderson, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
"I think we were making it a little easy on him," Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe said. "We were shooting pucks with no screens, nobody in front of the net, and a lot of outside shots. That was the biggest difference with him tonight."
Netting his team-high 31st goal of the season, Verhaeghe got the Panthers on the board in the third period when he took a pass from Anthony Duclair, who made his season debut, and sniped a wicked shot past Anderson from the right circle to cut the deficit down to 2-1 at 8:24.
Cracking the scoresheet in his return, Duclair hadn't played a game since the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs after undergoing surgery to repair an Achilles injury in July.
"A little jittery in the first [period] there just trying to find my legs," said Duclair, who also dished out five hits over 17:26 of ice time in his return. "Then in the second I started feeling better, and then in the third more comfortable. It's just a question of timing and finding chemistry with the guys. All in all, after seven months [of rehab], coming back I think I should be proud of myself."
Throwing a wrench in Florida's comeback attempt, Skinner put the Sabres back on top by two goals when he roofed a shot into the top of the net from a sharp angle to make it 3-1 at 10:36.
Falling to 29-26-56 in the standings, the Panthers are now tied with Buffalo for the second-wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but they've also played four more games than the Sabres.
"It's a huge game at home and it's really disappointing coming in with two first periods like that," Verhaeghe said. "It [stinks]. We're in a payoff plush. There's nothing we can do now, but we've got to be ready going forward here."
