Despite getting over 40 shots on goal, Buffalo gets shutout against Florida

On Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres offense put on a show against the Los Angeles Kings in a 7-0 victory. For the first time all season, the Sabres were relentless as they did not show any signs of slowing down, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was incredible as he registered his fourth shutout of the season. Even though it was an impressive victory, it was going to be interesting how they would respond coming into tonight's game against the Florida Panthers.

Before the game started, the Sabres received some bad news. Goaltender Dustin Tokarski was called up from the Rochester Americans, and Jack Quinn was placed on injured reserve. Fans were wondering why Tokarski was called up, but they didn't have to wait long. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was to day-to-day with a lower body injury. Eric Comrie, who hasn't played a game in awhile, was getting the nod for Buffalo.

Florida got the scoring started just about halfway into the period thanks to Aleksander Barkov stealing the puck from Sabres defenseman Ryan Johnson, feeding Carter Verhaeghe to make it 1-0 Panthers. In the second period, Anton Lundell extended the Florida lead to two goals, making it 2-0. The Panthere went on to score two empty netters enroute to a 4-0 win over the Sabres.

Despite getting 45 shots on goal, Buffalo could not solve Panthers goaltender Anthony Stolarz as he was very impressive registering the shutout. It was like the Stars game all over again, but this time, Buffalo couldn't score at all. The Sabres offense had so many chances to score, but Stolarz was clutch when it mattered the most.

Even though the offense couldn't score, Comrie did his job and played well. It was a complete 180 of the Kings game, which I was afraid of. I talked about how we hoped they saved some goals for a better team in Florida, but they just couldn't get one past the Panthers netminder. Buffalo will look to end Week 18 strong as they will be in Minnesota Saturday evening for a matchup against the Wild at 5pm.