How to watch New Jersey Devils vs. Buffalo Sabers: Time, channel and free NHL Global Series live stream

The Buffalo Sabers and New Jersey Devils begin the 2024-25 NHL regular season, with the first-ever game being played on Friday, October 4 (10/24/2024) in Prague, Czech Republic.

How to watch: Stream Buffalo Sabers hockey on fuboTV (free trial).

Here's what you need to know:

What: NHL Global Series

WHO: Devils @ Sabres

When: Friday, October 4, 2024

Time: 1:00 p.m. EDT

Where: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic

TV: NHL Network, MSG

Station finder: DirecTV, Verizon Fios, Cox, Xfinity, Spectrum, Optimum

Live stream: fuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial), Sling (half off first month), Hulu + Live TV (free trial)

The 2024 Buffalo Sabers are back under the leadership of Lindy Ruff for his second term as head coach in Buffalo. Ruff previously coached from 1997 to 2013 before stints with the Dallas Stars, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. Now he's back in Buffalo with a mission to bring responsibility to a team that hasn't made the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.

Last season was a challenging one for the Sabres, who went 39-37-6 and finished sixth in the Atlantic Division with 84 points and missed the postseason entirely for the 13th straight season. Ultimately, Buffalo finished the season 4-3 in April.

The Sabers have talent at forward such as Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozen and JJ Peterka, as well as on defense in Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Bowen Byram. It will be up to Ruff to see if he can build cohesion where Don Granato couldn't.

They will face one of their Eastern Conference rivals, the New Jersey Devils, who are coming off a 38-39-5 season in which they also missed the playoffs.

Both games take place in Prague. Here is the series schedule:

• Devils @ SabresFriday, October 4th, 1 p.m. on NHLN (STREAM)
• Sabers @ DevilsSaturday, October 5th, 10 a.m. on NHLN (STREAM)

Can I bet on the game?

Yes, you can bet on the Sabers from your phone in New York state. We've rounded up some of the best introductory offers to help you make your first bets from BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365 and more.

According to DraftKings, the Devils have a -148 margin of victory.

Here's a recent NHL story from The Associated Press:

PRAGUE (AP) — Ondrej Palat has won the Stanley Cup twice. He won a gold medal with the Czech Republic at the World Championships.

This week, the forward will tackle another item on his bucket list when his New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabers open the NHL regular season with two games in Prague.

“I was fortunate enough to achieve many of my dreams in hockey,” Palat said. “But I could never have imagined playing an NHL hockey game in my beloved Czech Republic.”

The NHL Global Series games on Friday and Saturday bring the number of regular season games played in Prague to nine. Stockholm, Sweden, is the only place outside of North America that had more.

Two more international games will be played in Tampere, Finland on November 1st and 2nd when defending Stanley Cup champion Florida takes on the Dallas Stars.

Palat said traveling together to overseas games can be a good team-building experience. Five years ago, he was part of the Tampa Bay Lightning that won a two-game series against the Sabers in Stockholm. The team won the Stanley Cup again in 2020 and the following year.

“With Tampa, the trip to Stockholm was great for us,” Palat said. “We had a lot of fun, it translated to the ice and we played great. We need to do something similar. We will have fun, but it is also a business trip and we have to start the season well.”

Ice hockey-loving Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic have been the preferred destinations for NHL regular season games abroad in recent years. Together with Russia, these countries make up the majority of European players in the league.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in August that the league wanted to expand into other markets, citing Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom as possibilities. London had two regular season games in 2007 and Berlin had one in 2011. Switzerland has never hosted a regular season game.

The Devils have played in Europe before; In 2018, they defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Sabers have played four. Before the losses to Tampa in 2019, they won twice in 2011 against the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 in Helsinki and the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 in Berlin. They played a friendly match in Munich last week.

Czech NHL players are hugely popular at home and the presence of Palat and Sabers rookie forward Jiri Kulich ensures Prague's O2 Arena will be packed this weekend. Palat was part of the Czech team that defeated Switzerland in May to win the World Cup in the same arena.

The Devils signed Palat, who has 101 career postseason points, to a five-year, $30 million contract in 2022 to take advantage of his playoff experience. However, last spring they failed to make the playoffs for the 10th time in 12 seasons.

Sheldon Keefe, who coached the Toronto Maple Leafs to the playoffs in five consecutive seasons, was hired by the Devils to make an impact.

“We're certainly still learning, but people want to learn, get better and build something sustainable here because they know it's not going to happen overnight,” Keefe said.

The Sabers hope to end a 13-year playoff drought. Coach Lindy Ruff, who led them to the last postseason in 2011, is back after being fired by New Jersey. During his previous tenure from 1997 to 2012, Buffalo advanced eight times and reached the 1999 Stanley Cup Final.

Ruff needs to improve the offense, which averaged 2.98 goals per game – 23rd in the league.

The good news for the Sabers is that Jack Quinn is fit after playing in just 27 games and recording nine goals and ten assists last season due to injury.

“With the injuries and everything, I just haven’t been able to take the steps that I wanted to as a player,” Quinn said. “I feel like I would have done it last year if I hadn’t been injured, so I’m on a mission to do that this year.”