SUNRISE, Fla. — The Buffalo Sabres this week professed a desire to start anew, ignore the opening 24 games and come to Florida with an 0-0 record. Well, not only did they drop their third straight game according to the NHL's schedule, they fell to 1-1 in their own season

openers this year.

The Sabres' fresh start failed to produce a different result Thursday, as they trudged out

of South Florida with a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. The Sabres dominated the game on the

shot counter, racking up a 46-25 edge, but they still plummeted to 2-8 in the past 10 games.

Having the edge in overall play did little to console a team that is reeling from the

consistent losses.

"I would rather be the worse team for 59 minutes and end up with the game," forward Ales

Kotalik said. "It just didn't happen. You might be the better hockey team, but when the

results don't go your way it just goes deeper into your frustration."

While the Sabres are frustrated by their setbacks, their coach was upset with his

goaltender. The Panthers' goals came 35 seconds apart in the second period, and Lindy Ruff

figures Ryan Miller could have stopped both.

The Panthers used a tic-tac-toe passing play to free up Gregory Campbell for the opening

goal. Jay Bouwmeester dropped the puck to Michael Frolik, who spotted Campbell streaking down

the left side. Campbell found the net before Miller could slide across the crease with 4:18

remaining.

"I thought it was an easy play for Ryan to read," Ruff said. "The guy on the other side

wasn't showing shot, and I thought it was an easy play to get over and make the save."

The announcement of Campbell's goal came just as Keith Ballard used him as a decoy to

double the Florida advantage. The duo entered the zone on a two-on-one, and Ballard kept the

puck and whistled it past Miller to send the fans' cow bells rattling. It also sent Ruff's

antenna up.

"You've got to get saves there," Ruff said. "You've got to get saves. That's just the

bottom line. You've got to get big saves at a time like that. When we're pushing hard [with

our defensemen joining the offense], we're going to need a big save, and I'm not going to back

off that."

Though Ruff didn't like Miller's play, the goalie would have needed to be nearly perfect to

make up for a struggling offense. When Kotalik scored with 8:41 left to cut the deficit to

2-1, it ended the team's scoring drought at 143:40.

Kotalik's goal came on a five-on-three advantage.

"It's tough to win if you don't get five-on-five goals," defenseman Teppo Numminen said.

"We didn't play good enough. That's the bottom line. We didn't play good enough to win. We

came up short."

Apparently, nobody told South Floridians it was a season opener. The usual sparse crowd,

announced at 13,123, left huge sections of empty seats in BankAtlantic Center. Aside from an

occasional cow bell or trumpet blast, the arena was quiet.

But the atmosphere spiked late in the second when the home team struck for its two quick

goals.

Meanwhile, the Sabres kept piling up shots, and it took the five-on-three midway through

the third period to finally crack Craig Anderson's armor. Jaroslav Spacek fed Kotalik at the

top of the faceoff circle, and few goalies have a chance when Kotalik is that close. His

rocket zipped past Anderson on the Sabres' 37th shot.

The previous Sabres goal came two games prior against Montreal when Thomas Vanek scored

7:39 into the second period.

"I don't think we played bad," Vanek said, "but when you score one goal it's tough to

expect to win. Obviously, we've got to score more."

It was always sunny in Florida last season for the Sabres, who went 4-0 during visits with

the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. They're 0-1 with Saturday's trip to Tampa on tap.

"That's a lot closer to the way we needed to play," Ruff said. "We went after it. We missed

on our odd-numbered rushes. They didn't."