The Buffalo Sabres are entering a pivotal game on Saturday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. This is an intriguing game as the Sabres are looking to keep their momentum going coming off their first win of the season, an 8-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
Meanwhile the Panthers are trying to end a three-game losing streak that has largely been impacted by a growing list of injuries they are trying to navigate through.
For the Sabres, they are starting to get healthy as they had the regular season debut of Zach Benson against the Senators and appear set to welcome back another player against the Panthers in Mattias Samuelsson.
He is the first of a few players that Sabres fans need to pay extra attention to as they could have a big impact on the outcome of the game.
4 Buffalo Sabres to watch against the Florida Panthers
Mattias Samuelsson
Samuelsson has missed the past two games and last played a week ago on the road against the Boston Bruins. His absence was a pretty big loss for a defense that has already been missing Michael Kesselring.
However, with Samuelsson back for this game it is a significant boost to that third pair that has been Jacob Bryson and Ryan Johnson for the most part. The Sabres since have sent Johnson down to the Amerks and called up Zach Metsa but Bryson should be the sixth defensemen for the Sabres in this game.
During practice on Friday, Samuelsson was skating with Bryson while Connor Timmins was with Owen Power. However, Power and Timmins have struggled some this season and have the highest xGoals Against Per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck, at 3.28, while Samuelsson and Timmins have one of the best at 1.87.
It will be interesting to see what the Sabres start the game with and if there are any changes made over the course of the game, based on performance.