Florida Panthers Travel to Buffalo to Face the Sabres

The Florida Panthers will travel to the KeyBank Center on Monday evening to take on the Buffalo Sabres in an Atlantic Division matchup. These two franchises faced off once this season back in early December as Florida picked up a 7-4 home victory over Buffalo. The Panthers are leading the Atlantic Division (37-13-5, 78 points) while the Sabres are sixth in the Atlantic Division (18-30-8, 44 points) this season. 

There seems to be an obvious separation between these teams, so it will be an interesting matchup. Let’s take a closer look into Florida and Buffalo to determine on who should we be betting here.

Game Preview: Florida Panthers at Buffalo Sabres March 7

The Florida Panthers are doing incredibly well on the offensive side of things as they are averaging 4.09 goals on 37 shot attempts this season. They are being led by the NHL assist leader left winger Jonathan Huberdeau with 76 points (18 goals, 58 assists). He has recorded six points in his previous five games.

The offense needs to continuously play well if they want to continue winning games. Compare that to Buffalo’s 2.70 goals on 29.9 shots this season. Right winger Tage Thompson has led the charge with 42 points (23 goals, 19 assists) this season for the Sabres.  

The defense of the Panthers needs to continue improving, as well as they are allowing 2.93 goals on 30.9 shot attempts per game. Sergei Bobrovsky has dominated as he is 28-6-3 with a 91.6 save percentage and 2.56 goals allowed.

That is a heck of a lot better than Buffalo’s Dustin Tokarski, who is just 5-8-4 with 3.38 goals allowed per game and an 89.9 save percentage. As a whole, the Sabres are giving up 3.55 goals on 34.2 shots against this season. 

Florida Panthers at Buffalo Sabres Betting Prediction

These two defenses have been playing incredibly similarly in their previous five games as both the Panthers and the Sabres are allowing 3.6 goals in that span.

However, there still seems to be a clear divide between these two programs, and most of that is talent. Florida is not dealing with any injuries, while Buffalo has five players currently listed on ESPN’s injury report as of this writing.

Florida is an incredible 12-7-5 on the road this season, while Buffalo is 9-14-4 in KeyBank Arena this year. Florida is 31-24 against the spread, while Buffalo is 31-25 against the spread this season.

We should be in for an interesting bout, but in terms of betting, it is hard to look past Florida Panthers. Go with the Panthers to cover the puck line as they have been the better franchise this season.

* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
**All views expressed are my own. My picks are my own and are not a guarantee, bet at your own risk.