"Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau has caused quite a stir in the hockey world the last week for his wildly profane dressing room tirade aired on HBO's "24/7" that was filmed during a recent game against the Florida Panthers.

Too bad the HBO cameras weren't in HSBC Arena on Thursday night. The Buffalo Sabres could have provided them plenty of footage during their troubling 4-3 loss to the Panthers, a game that saw them wipe out a 3-0 deficit but then lose anyway despite a 48-29 advantage in shots on goal.

And the news gets even worse for a Buffalo team that heads into the Christmas break mired in 12th place in the Eastern Conference: Leading scorer Derek Roy will likely be out for the longterm after suffering an apparent left knee injury early in the first period when he was crunched along the boards by Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov.

"We'll know more [today] but it looks serious," said a somber coach Lindy Ruff.

Just prior to Ruff's postgame meeting with reporters, Roy was seen leaving the building walking slowly on crutches with what appeared to be a large wrap on the knee under his pants.

Florida won the game on Jason Garrison's goal at 14:53 of the third period. It came on a two-on-one break after Tyler Myers was tripped in the Panthers' zone by Stephen Weiss trying to execute a spin move.

A similar move by Myers created Jordan Leopold's second goal of the game in the second period, forging a 3-3 tie. This time, it turned into disaster.

"I don't understand why that wasn't called," Myers said, his lips quivering with anger. "I got a stick to the leg, he takes me down and they go down and score. Pretty upsetting. I had him beaten. He takes me down with a trip. If he doesn't take me down, it's a scoring chance for us. I'm pretty upset about that."

Myers charged after referee Bill McCreary after the play and got no satisfaction of any explanation."