BUFFALO _ If an opening-night matchup against the team with the best record in the NHL last season represented a measuring stick for the 2018-19 Rangers, then wouldn't a game against the team with the worst record in the league be a different measuring stick for them?
If so, what is there to be made of the Rangers' 3-1 loss to the Sabres on Saturday night?
Conor Sheary, one of several additions to the Sabres' roster after the club underwent a number of changes in the offseason, scored two power-play goals and Jack Eichel had an empty-netter in the final seconds to seal it as the Sabres dropped the Rangers to 0-2.
Rookie Brett Howden scored his first NHL goal with 4:39 left in the third period as the Rangers cut their deficit to 2-1, but they couldn't get the tying goal.
The Rangers will have a short turnaround as they try to pick up their first win Sunday in Carolina against the Hurricanes in a 5 p.m. start.
Special teams let the Rangers down against the Sabres, as the penalty-killing unit gave up two goals on its first two opportunities and finished 2-for-4, while the power play was 0-for-3. The Rangers did generate 44 shots on goal, but Buffalo goaltender Carter Hutton stopped 43 of them. At the other end, Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 of 28 shots.
Shortly after Sheary scored his second goal, at 1:42 of the second period to make it 2-0, the Rangers got a scare when rookie Filip Chytil left early in the second period after getting hit by Buffalo's Patrik Berglund. Replays seemed to show Berglund's shoulder catching Chytil on the chin, and the 19-year-old left for a while to undergo concussion testing, but returned late in the period.
The Sabres, who lost, 4-0, to the Boston Bruins, and were booed off the ice in their season-opening game Thursday, scored their first goal of the season when Sheary, a former Pittsburgh Penguin acquired in an offseason trade, beat Lundqvist with a left-circle wrist shot at 13:15 of the first period. The Rangers' Chris Kreider was in the penalty box, sent off for holding Buffalo's Jeff Skinner.
Up to that point, the Rangers had dominated possession and were peppering Hutton, who was solid in stopping 14 first-period shots. Vinni Lettieri was penalized at the end of the second period for high sticking Marco Scandella, and Sheary made it 2-0 when he banged in a one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Sam Reinhart. Eichel, the Sabres' 21-year-old captain and a former Boston University star under Rangers coach David Quinn, got the second assist on the goal.
Before the game, Quinn had talked about Eichel, who played just one year at BU, won the Hobey Baker Trophy after leading the nation in scoring, and then was drafted No. 2 overall by the Sabres. The coach admitted it would be weird to devise a game plan to stop Eichel.
"Yeah, it'll be a little different," Quinn said. "I'm not gonna lie, that'll be definitely a little different."
Quinn, who has said he isn't big on matching lines or defense pairs against other team's top lines, generally had his top line of Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich out against Eichel's line, though he seemed comfortable with either of his top two defense pairs against him.
Quinn also said he hoped for more from his own top line, after he thought they didn't skate hard enough in the first game. He wasn't concerned about the line being effective, though.
"All right, you didn't have a great night, now what're you going to do about it? You're going to make sure it's not two bad nights," he said.
