Sabres can’t punch in close chances in 4-0 loss to New York Rangers
The Buffalo Sabres dropped their season opener, 4-0, to the New York Rangers, as Alex Lyon made 29 saves in his first start of the season.
The Buffalo Sabres can count the number of so-close chances they had against one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders.
Jason Zucker had a few net-front chances against New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, including a chance to tie the game late in the second period. Ryan McLeod had one in the late in the first. Even Justin Danforth, the Sabres' fourth-line spark plug, wasn’t about to throw away his shot against Shesterkin early in the third.
The problem was, Shesterkin was unbeatable, particularly on those close-range, high-percentage scoring shots, and stonewalled the Sabres in a 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers in the season opener Thursday at KeyBank Center.
Buffalo Sabres left wing Jason Zucker (17) moves the puck in the first period of their season opener against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
(Joed Viera/Buffalo News) Joed Viera/Buffalo News
“Hopefully, they’ll just move out of the way, one of those times,” Zucker said, tongue firmly in cheek.
Zucker made his best attempt at breaking the tension after the shutout but knew the value of winning in front of the net.
“Sometimes they go in and bounce your way,” Zucker said. “Sometimes they don’t. Tommer (Tage Thompson) made a great play to me at one point and it went right through my feet, and it probably should have been a tap-in.
“There’s a lot of plays that happened, but I think if we focus on getting more net-front opportunities, more screens with our d-men shooting pucks, I think we’re going to be in a good spot.”
Shesterkin made 37 saves and spoiled Alex Lyon’s debut as the Sabres’ starter in goal, and Shesterkin and the Rangers shut out the Sabres in a home opener for the first time since Oct. 4, 2018, when the Boston Bruins beat the Sabres, 4-0.
But it wasn’t just opening the season against Shesterkin or the Rangers, who had a jump in their step after a season-opening 3-0 loss Tuesday night to the Pittsburgh Penguins in New York City.
The Sabres finished 0-4 on the power play. At one point, the Rangers outshot the Sabres 15-7. Alexis Lafreniere gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 11:43 of the first when he banked the puck off Lyon’s left skate and punched it into the goal, but the Sabres showed some spark in the second period, in which they outshot the Rangers 14-5 and killed off a roughing penalty to Zucker with less than six minutes left.
Then, Carson Soucy gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead at 14:46 of the third after Peyton Krebs turned over the puck, and Soucy beat Lyon for the first of three Rangers goals in the final six minutes.
“It’s a low-chance affair,” Ruff said. “Both goalies were good. We made a big mistake on that second goal. We turned the puck over on the wall … we were trying to head out on offense, we turn it over and we put our goalie (Lyon) in a bad spot there. To that point, we’d played a pretty clean second period, and to that point in the third, pretty clean.”
Now, the Sabres prepare to face the Boston Bruins at 7 p.m. Saturday at TD Garden in Boston, and a a 1-1 start would be a much better morale-booster than opening the season 0-2.
Lyon (29 saves) impressed the importance of building consistency, now that the season has started and the grind of training camp and the preseason is in the rear-view mirror.
It’s not an easy task, said Lyon, who starts his 10th season of professional hockey. It’s an everyday task.
“Some of it is just doing the right things every day, and it’s hard,” Lyon said. “When you’re competing against good players day in and day out, it’s extremely difficult because they get paid as well, so they’re trying to do the same thing.
“You’re just trying to, incrementally, get that edge and then just build it and build it and build it. There are things to take away, but you play the game to win. We’ve got to try to get a win here on Saturday.”
Injury update
Josh Norris left the ice with less than five minutes left in the third after taking a faceoff near the Sabres’ bench, and while Ruff didn’t disclose the specific nature of Norris’ injury, he was still blunt.“He didn’t finish the game, so I’m going to say that’s not a good sign,” Ruff said, adding the center sustained an upper-body injury.
It could be a concern, as Norris has been plagued by injuries over the last six years.
Zach Benson (facial laceration) and Owen Power (illness) did not play against the Rangers. Benson, Ruff said, spent Wednesday and Thursday night in a hospital after he took a puck to the face during practice earlier this week.
“I talked to him on my drive in,” Ruff said. “He said, ‘I’d like to get out of my hospital bed and come and play.’ ”
