BUFFALO – Forget that the Philadelphia Flyers entered the night on a two-game win streak and advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.
Having started the season a stunning 0-6-3 before finally notching a win in their 10th try, they’ve endured a brutal three-week stretch.
Prior to Wednesday’s 3-1 win over the Sabres in KeyBank Center, the Flyers were 0-4-1 on the road.
At home before a capacity crowd of 19,070 fans, the Sabres should’ve throttled – OK, at least defeated – the Flyers.
Instead, as they have nine times in their first 10 games, the Sabres fell behind two goals. But unlike each game during their three-game road trip last week, they couldn’t roar back, and they suffered an embarrassing loss that dropped them to .500 (4-4-2).
The Sabres, as they have throughout the season, missed the net on scoring opportunities and let coverage lapse around goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
“We had some great looks in the first period, some good looks in the second period, too,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I still think we missed the net too often. Our net-front coverage, again, we just handed them an easy goal. … They won the net battle for a couple goals. We didn’t.”
Flyers rookie Cole Knuble scored his first two goals in his second NHL game, opening the scoring at the net 14:49 into the contest before banking the puck off Luukkonen from the side of the net to make it 3-1 3:03 into the third period.
Trevor Zegras scored a power-play goal at the crease to make it 2-0 19:17 into the first period.
Shortly before winger Jason Zucker scored a power-play goal 19:25 into the second period to move the Sabres within 2-1, they were forced to kill off a two-man advantage because a referee whistled defenseman Owen Power for high-sticking Matvei Michkov.
Michkov, however, was high-sticked by his own teammate. As the crowd howled in disgust, the normally mild-mannered Power lost his cool in the penalty box, banging his stick and yelling.
“You see the video, it’s pretty obvious,” Power said.
Owen Power gets called for high sticking even though it was a flyer on flyer incident. Resulting in a lengthy 5 on 3 against.
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— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) October 22, 2026
Ruff said the referee came to the bench and told him he got the call wrong.
“When you’re gonna put a team down five-on-three, you’ve got to be right about the call,” Ruff said. “I mean, that was the point I made with him when he came over just after the play. I just said, ‘Listen, you got it wrong.’ He said, ‘We know.’ But I said, ‘If you’re going to make that call, you got to be right.’ So it was a tough call for us at that time of the game.”
The Sabres got through it. But after Zucker’s goal, they couldn’t carry that momentum into the third period.
They mustered just five shots on Flyers goalie Dan Vladar in the final 20 minutes.
“It was just kind of overall how our game was,” Zucker said. “I don’t think we pressured enough. We didn’t get enough pucks behind them. We didn’t have enough bodies in front of the net making it tough on Vladar. He’s a great goalie, and if he sees every puck, he’s going to make every save.”
Zucker, who made his season debut after undergoing sports hernia surgery in the summer, skated 12 minutes, 16 seconds in his first game since May 18.
“I think I was OK,” he said of his performance. “I think I got a lot better. I’m not very happy with it overall. I think part of it comes with just getting more time and more games and that.”
Ruff said he liked Zucker’s effort considering it was his first game and he missed all of training camp.
“We give him a passing grade on the game, for sure,” he said. “I know he expects more out of himself, and a player like that should.”
Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson fought Fairport native Hunter McDonald late in the game after McDonald’s clean open-ice hit on center Ryan McLeod.
In addition to a fighting major, Samuelsson earned an instigating minor and a 10-minute misconduct.
“Awesome, awesome,” Ruff said of Samuelsson’s response. “He’s turned into an awesome teammate, guy that jumped right in for his teammate when he thought he got hit a little bit illegally.”
McDonald lined up McLeod for a good hit. Samuelsson took offense.
Samuelsson vs McDonald
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— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) October 22, 2026
