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Buffalo Sabres Begin Season With Fresh Start, Higher Expectations

Buffalo Sabres’ Zemgus Girgensons (28) celebrates a goal by teammate Evander Kane (9) during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, Thursday, October 8, 2015, in Buffalo, New York It was determined the goal was not allowed on video replay after a coach’s challenge.

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Vladimir Tarasenko had the tying goal for the Blues near the midpoint of the second period, and Troy Brouwer added an empty-netter with 18 seconds remaining in the third. After the 24-year-old had a chat with Sabres training staff, it was decided that he would take the rest of the night off. They also improved to 12-0-3 in their past 15 road games dating to last season. He was a point-per-game player in each of the last two seasons for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL, highlighted by a 45-goal campaign in 2013-14.

“It was weird seeing the (Senators) jerseys, I thought they played with me, but they didn’t”, he said. Eichel played 21:58 in his debut and finished with three shots and a -1 rating.

Rookie sensation Jack Eichel scored in his regular season debut as a Buffalo Sabre.

A mere 30 seconds into the game, Hoffman fed Turris in the slot – Stone took Sabres defenceman Mike Weber to the net, creating the traffic – and Turris beat Lehner high over his trapper.

The third period, however, showed a bit more of what this Sabres team will hopefully become this season. Hoffman’s shot was blocked, but the puck dribbled to the left of the net where Turris snapped it in.

“It’s going to be fun, I haven’t played against him ever I think so it will be interesting”, said Senators captain Erik Karlsson.

Buffalo had momentum on its side when Kane looked to have scored 1:23 later, but it was unable to recover from the disallowed goal. They don’t have the most experience but they will be a good team going forward. A win definitely would have capped the day off perfectly but you can’t have it all. “This was offside, and it shouldn’t have been a goal”. If Lehner ultimately misses any extended period of time, Buffalo will have to rely on Johnson, making a shaky goaltending situation even shakier. The Sabres announced Lehner sustained a lower-body injury. D Jake McCabe and D Matt Donovan were scratched for Buffalo…. The Senators, who narrowly lost to Montreal in the playoffs last season, had different plans and showed the Sabres how a playoff team looks, getting a 3-1 victory. Should a coach lose his challenge, his team is charged with their timeout, which seems like a pretty uneven trade considering that the usual timeout is only thirty seconds, while this reviewed play took more than two minutes to do.

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That was no more evident than the opening goal he scored in a 4-0 win over Toronto last week.

Eichel keeps focus on helping Sabres win