Buffalo vs Florida Prediction: The Panthers will beat the league underdog

On October 15, 2022 the ice at the KeyBank Center will host another NHL regular season game where local Buffalo will take on Florida.

Buffalo is one of the hopeless underdogs of the NHL in recent years, trying to do another rebuild to finally become a competitive team. In the offseason, the Sabres made a number of deals for targeted roster reinforcement, including the purchase of Ilya Lyubushkin, who had proven himself a year earlier in Toronto. The Russian made his debut in the first game of the new regular season, assisting Victor Olofsson on an empty net goal. In this game, they defeated Ottawa at home - 4:1 although at first they were losing 0:

For years, Florida was also a league underdog, but Joel Quenneville made the Panthers a Stanley Cup contender in a short period of time. Alas, the experienced specialist finished his work with the Southerners in the opening game of the last regular season, and his successor Andrew Brunnette led his team to a number of club records, and to winning the President's Cup as well. Alas, that was the end of their exploits, as they lost 0-4 to Tampa Bay in the second round of the playoffs, and Paul Maurice took over. In the debut of the new regular season, Florida also proved itself great, getting a victory over the Islanders in a tough away game - 3-1.

During the regular NHL championships, the teams have played 107 face-to-face meetings. On the account of the Sabres there are 52 wins, the Panthers were stronger in 51 games, and four more games ended in a draw. The difference of scored goals was also on the side of the hosts in the upcoming confrontation - 296:288. Last season, the rivals met four times, and all four times the victory was celebrated by Buffalo players - 7:4, 6:1, 5:3 and 4:3.

Buffalo and Florida started the current regular season with victories, but this fact doesn't change the fact that they have completely different levels. If the Sabres are struggling at the bottom of the standings, the Panthers were the strongest in the league last regular season and now intend to repeat that success with their strong roster. The difference in class is confirmed by the statistics on head-to-head encounters, according to which the Southerners won all four of last season's fights.
Florida broke a number of club records in the last regular season, not only scoring a lot of points but also playing great offensively. In 82 meetings, the Panthers scored 340 pucks (4.15 average per game), an incredible mark for such a long streak. Moreover, in four head-to-head encounters with Buffalo, the southerners scored 22 pucks (5.50 average per game) - a fantastic result. We propose looking into Florida Total Over 3.5 for about 1.60.
Patric Hornqvist is an experienced forward, who was a key element of the champion Pittsburgh, but he is in his third consecutive season with Florida, continuing to show hockey of a very solid level. Last regular season he scored 28 points (11 goals + 17 assists) in 65 games played. It would seem that one shouldn't expect much from a hockey player of a 35 years old, however, in the first game of the new season he scored again. Obviously, the Swedish veteran is in good shape, so it is worth taking the bet on the total over 0.5 points of Patrik Hornqvist with the odds of about 2.65.