Sabres thump Devils

In Buffalo, the Sabres opened their home schedule with three power play goals on their way to a 7-2 thumping of the visiting New Jersey Devils.

Victor Olofsson and Sam Reinhart struck for two goals each in the win as the Sabres showed off their anniversary whites.

“We wanted to come out and show the fans what it’s going to be like this year and the type of product we want to put on the ice, just get them excited for the season,” Jack Eichel (one goal) said. “I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight. It’s all about consistency, and we just want to keep doing it every night and make this place a hard place to come in and try to play.”

Carter Hutton made 18 saves to get the win, his second of the young season.

“The pregame ceremony was tremendous. Just a moment that I’ll never forget, going out there with some of those guys and being able to stand in the same circle as them was just a tremendous honor and an amazing moment. I think we were all pretty amped up to get the game going,” Eichel said.

Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac broke through for goals for the Devils.

“We’re playing soft and light, and we’re playing like we want to have an easy game,” Devils head coach John Hynes said. “We can talk about it nine different ways; that’s the reality of where we’re at right now, so we’ve got to fix it.”

Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo also scored for the Sabres.

“We just did a good job of sticking with our game plan,” Eichel said. “Nobody panicked on the bench. It wasn’t a big deal or anything. I think we just went out and did a really good job of putting pressure on them. We had a few good shifts in their end, we rolled them over, and [Okposo] gets a big goal.

“I think we were able to regain momentum from there and just throughout the game we were able to do that. It’s important to do that.”

Buffalo was was perfect on all three power play chances.

[WATCH: All Devils vs. Sabres highlights]

Mackenzie Blackwood surrendered all seven goals on 36 shots.

“Defensively, we haven’t been hard enough in any plays, and we’re allowing teams too much time and space,” Zajac said. “We know what we have to do and what’s our identity and what’s expected of us as a team, and we just haven’t been able to get to our identity.”