The good spirits in Buffalo didn’t last long.(NBCSN)
It’s been a summer of excitement for the Buffalo Sabres. Multiple additions — including top prospect Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Evander Kane — were set to make their Sabres debuts on opening night. There was the electricity of the home opener to match that offseason buzz as the Sabres welcomed the Ottawa Senators.
The excitement lasted all of 30 seconds.
The Sens broke out of their zone with incredible ease and were off to the races. Mike Hoffman dished a beautiful pass to Kyle Turris who made no mistake with a clean look at the net a mere 30 seconds into the game.
The first shot offseason addition Robin Lehner faced against his former club was a goal. Before the highly touted Eichel could take a shift, the Sabres were down 1-0.
Total buzzkill.
It’s obviously not the way the Sabres wanted to start their year after all of the hype, but even with the offseason additions this is still a team that had 54 points in the standings last season. It was a quick, blunt reminder that Buffalo is still in a process of building their way back up from the ashes of back-to-back last-place finishes.
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