Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves and Paul Cotter had an empty-netter and assist in their debuts with New Jersey as the Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Friday in the NHL regular-season opener that was played in the capital of Czechia (widely known in English as the Czech Republic).

The Sabres did a good job at limiting the Devils, a team everyone predicts will be an offensive buzzsaw this season, to just a handful of high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5. Buffalo did let up three goals and had a couple of breakdowns, but overall it was more good than bad in their own zone.

Mattias Samuelsson has become a Ruff favorite early on. Samuelsson is an easy guy to get along with on and off the ice, and he plays the style of game that is easy for Ruff to respect. So it made sense when Ruff gave Samuelsson one of the four A’s. But it wasn’t something Samuelsson saw coming.