'That's Sabres hockey' | Doan, Lyon lead passionate win over Panthers

A highly contentious and impassioned affair at KeyBank Center on Saturday not only rendered a 3-0 win for the Buffalo Sabres over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers but showcased the talents of two of the newest Sabres: Josh Doan and Alex Lyon.

Doan dazzled with two power-play goals – one deflecting off his leg from Tage Thompson’s shot and the other a wide-open tap-in from Jason Zucker. Lyon, meanwhile, posted 32 saves for his first shutout of the season.

Doan spent the offseason studying film of the NHL’s elite net-front scorers – including two of his opponents on Saturday in Florida’s Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart. He’s found a home in that role on Buffalo’s top power-play unit over the last two games, having tallied three assists against Ottawa on Wednesday prior to his two-goal performance.

• Next home game: Wednesday vs. Detroit

“I enjoy that part of the game,” Doan said. “There's chaos there and when it goes the right way, you see tonight where pucks just kind of hit you and go in, and that's part of it. You're going to take a cross check here or there in games and not score, then there's gonna be games where it just kind of hits you and goes in. It's a great trade off, but it's part of the game that I enjoy and look forward to kind of continuing throughout the year.”

Doan said he “he thrives in the chaos” and has worked to make getting to the opposing net-front a habit in his game. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff echoed that sentiment, saying Doan has added a new element to the first power-play unit

“Great guy on the puck,” Ruff said. “Getting around the puck, getting to the net. Really, I think we’ve just seen a glimpse of his game. He’s done a nice job now being added to that power play and getting around the front of the net. I think that’s one of the strengths he has. His puck retrievals on the power play are very good. I think he’s helped us in a couple areas there.”

Doan’s offense has been an added bonus to the qualities he had exhibited as a member of Utah prior to this season: hard work, tenacious forechecking, and defensive reliability. His passion has been evident in practices and games alike – a quality the Sabres shared as a whole against the Panthers.

With the Panthers desperate to end a three-game losing streak, Saturday’s game featured a combined 40 penalty minutes. (Doan picked up two of them for his involvement in a post-whistle scrum.) The Sabres answered the bell when necessary – including a comical interaction that saw an incensed Brad Marchand take apart Rasmus Dahlin’s helmet and launch it from the penalty box, only for Dahlin to send it back in his direction – and continued their stellar shorthanded work with a 7-for-7 night on the penalty kill.

“There was a lot of emotion in the game, a lot of passion,” Ruff said. “For me, that’s Sabres hockey right there, passion. I thought there was passion tight from the start, killing the penalty right off the start, physicality. Every guy, I thought, had a good night for us.”

That first penalty occurred just nine seconds into the game and put a lethal Panthers power play to work. Lyon – who was signed six days after Doan was acquired alongside defenseman Michael Kesselring from Utah – settled the Sabres en route to his first shutout with Buffalo.

Ruff said Lyon fending off two Buffalo penalties in the first five minutes was pivotal and noted how his netminder was able to find pucks despite screens and make key stops. Lyon echoed how early game saves allowed him to settle in a rhythm.

"We had good emotion and good mentality coming into the game,” Lyon said. “I think that’s really important for us to be in the right headspace. I think we’ve learned that in the last five games or so. It’s a slippery slope. You can’t be satisfied with yourself. Good teams continue to put those efforts together.”

The 32-year-old has started all five games for the Sabres and has posted a 2.43 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.

“I’m the kind of guy that likes to play with passion and energy,” Lyon said. “I need that to play at my best. It is difficult for sure to get ramped up every other day. But that being said, maybe it’s kind of a blessing that it happened so early in the season. The body’s still feeling good, trying to just continue to grind. We’ve had a lot of home games as well, so I think that’s beneficial.”

Here’s more from the win.

Special teams take center stage

The Sabres penalty kill was tested on seven different occasions on Saturday. They were up to the task, going a perfect 7-for-7 against a Panthers power play unit that features players such as Marchand, Bennett, Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad and Evan Rodrigues.

The Sabres are 22-for-23 on penalty kill opportunities this season and moved into first place in the NHL with a 95.7 penalty kill percentage.

Six different Sabres logged five or more minutes of penalty-kill time including Conor Timmins, who skated a game-high 7:25 shorthanded. Timmins also led all skaters with six blocked shots and, at game’s end, was tied for the NHL lead with 18 blocked shots.

Ruff said playing physically at the net-front has deterred scoring chances and it proved pivotal Saturday.

“It’s something that we stressed around the front of our net” Ruff said. “I think you saw [Mattias] Samuelsson two or three times really hard on the ice, really physical. Just everywhere. It was a pack mentality, and it was a team effort on every part of that.”

The Sabres’ power play, meanwhile, moved into fifth in the NHL with a 27.8 percent success rate following the two goals from Doan. The power play previously went 3-for-3 against Ottawa on Wednesday.

“Just outworking teams, getting pucks back, being more shot first and creating chaos off the shot,” Doan said. “You got one more guy so to go in there and work a little bit harder than them, and you'll get an opportunity because you got that extra advantage so we would allow them that and focus on getting puck retrievals and shots on net.”

Bryson exits

Defenseman Jacob Bryson exited the game in the first four minutes of the opening period after taking a hit along the wall near the Sabres bench.

Bryson did not return due to an upper-body injury and Ruff said following the game that he is in concussion protocol.

Up next

The Sabres visit the Montreal Canadiens on Monday at Bell Centre. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.