If you have never built a same game parlay before, the Florida Panthers heading to KeyBank Center to face the Buffalo Sabres on Monday afternoon is a great place to start learning. This is a 1:00 PM ET matchup between a Panthers team that has been grinding out close, low-scoring games and a Sabres team still finding its footing early in the season, and that combination sets up a few beginner-friendly angles you can combine into one simple slip.

A same game parlay, or SGP, just means picking two or more outcomes from the same game and combining them into a single bet. All of the legs have to hit for the parlay to cash, which is riskier than betting them separately, but the payout grows with each leg you add. Below is a straightforward three-leg SGP built around what the numbers are actually saying about this game, explained in plain terms.

Leg 1: Panthers Puck Line (-1.5)

Florida comes in at 2-1-2 and has won two of its last three meetings with Buffalo, and oddsmakers have the Panthers as slight road favorites on the moneyline at right around -111 to -112. The puck line simply asks a favorite to win by two goals or more instead of just winning outright, which is why it pays much better — Florida is priced at roughly +205 to +225 to cover -1.5 here.

The appeal for a beginner angle is that Florida has real top-end scoring punch even while playing a tighter defensive style. Matthew Tkachuk already has 4 points (3 goals, 1 assist) through his first few games, and the Panthers’ structure under their usual game plan is built around suffocating teams in the third period once they have a lead. Buffalo, meanwhile, is 2-3-0 and has been inconsistent defensively, giving up enough quality looks that a multi-goal Florida win is a live outcome, not a reach.

This leg carries plug-and-play value with our betting calculator if you want to see exactly how the payout shifts as you adjust the stake.

Leg 2: Total Goals — Under 6.5

The total for this game sits at 6.5, with the under priced in the -134 to -139 range and the over sitting at roughly +110 to +112. Goaltending is the reason to lean under here. Florida’s Jacob Markstrom has been sharp early, posting a .916 save percentage with a GAA near 1.71 through his first few starts, which is elite form for this point in the season.

Buffalo’s goaltending, by contrast, has been shakier, but the Sabres have also been held to two goals or fewer in three of their last five outings. Add in that Florida’s team defense ranks among the stingier units in the league at limiting shot quality, and a tight, low-event game fits the profile of both teams’ recent results. Consensus bettor data also shows roughly half of the public backing the under on this exact matchup today, which tells you sharp recreational money sees the same thing.

Leg 3: Matthew Tkachuk Anytime Goal Scorer

For the third leg, attaching an anytime goal scorer prop is one of the easiest ways to add real value to an SGP without needing to predict an exact final score. Matthew Tkachuk is priced at roughly +180 to score at any point in this game, and his underlying numbers make that price attractive. He already has 3 goals in his first handful of games this season and is seeing regular power-play minutes, which only increases his scoring chances against a Buffalo penalty kill that has been middle-of-the-pack at best.

Pairing a top-line forward’s anytime goal prop with a team-level result like the puck line or the total is one of the most beginner-friendly ways to build an SGP, because you are betting on a player doing something he does fairly often (score a goal) rather than needing a very specific sequence of events to play out.

The Full Parlay

Put together: Florida Panthers -1.5 on the puck line, Under 6.5 total goals, and Matthew Tkachuk to score anytime. Individually, none of these legs is a huge stretch — the Panthers have the firepower and goaltending to win comfortably, the recent form on both sides points to a lower-scoring afternoon, and Tkachuk has been directly involved in nearly every Florida goal so far this season. Combined, a three-leg SGP like this is a reasonable way to turn a Monday afternoon tilt from a sleepy midweek matinee into a parlay with real upside, and it’s a clean template for learning how SGPs work before you start adding more legs on bigger slates. As always, double check the live lines at your sportsbook before locking anything in, since odds can shift closer to puck drop.