Sabres swept by Isles with another 5-2 loss

Jeff Skinner scored his first goal of the season to briefly spark a comeback, but the end result was the same for the Buffalo Sabres in a third straight 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday.
The loss concluded a set of three games in four days between the two teams at Nassau Coliseum. The Sabres are now winless in their past seven contests (0-6-1) with the finale of their five-game road trip due up in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Here are five takeaways from the game.

1. Second-period lapses show up again

Just like on Saturday, the Sabres played well in the first period but fell behind on a succession of goals during the second.
Anders Lee parked himself in front of the Buffalo net and scored seconds after a New York power play had concluded to put the Islanders ahead, 1-0. It took just 1:02 for Brock Nelson to double the lead with a shot from the high slot on the rush.
Casey Cizikas tapped in a crossing feed from Jean-Gabriel Pageau to make it 3-0 with 3:04 remaining in the period, ending what had been a long, grinding shift in the Buffalo zone.
"If you don't manage the puck well in the neutral zone against this team you get in trouble, and I think both games in the second period I didn't do a very good job of that," defenseman Colin Miller said.

2. Comeback falls short

Skinner roofed a backhand shot to put the Sabres on the board at 5:41 of the first period. Miller cut the deficit to one at 9:35, jumping in on the rush and beating goaltender Ilya Sorokin with a shot from the right faceoff circle.
It was as close as the Sabres would come. Brandon Davidson had the puck taken by Cal Clutterbuck for a breakaway goal just over three minutes later to extend the Islanders' lead. Nelson capped the scoring with an empty-net goal.
"There's no question that that piece of the third period, you could feel a certain bite and a fight compared to the past two games," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "You get back to 3-2 and then three minutes later you give up a breakaway which was very disheartening again for a group that's looking for a positive result."

3. Skinner gets on the board

Skinner had yet to score a goal this season despite leading the Sabres in 5-on-5 chances, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.

"It's nice," he said. "I sort of take myself as someone that should be able to contribute offensively and obviously that's been a bit of a struggle personally and as a team. Personally, I hope we can build on this and go from there."

4. Lineup notes

Casey Mittelstadt was recalled from the taxi squad and entered the lineup in place of Riley Sheahan. He skated on the right side of a line with Skinner and Curtis Lazar, earning the second assist on the former's goal for his fourth point this season.
The Sabres totaled 12 shot attempts with the line of Skinner, Lazar, and Mittelstadt on the ice at 5-on-5, the most among any forward line.
Davidson was recalled from the taxi squad along with Mittelstadt and stepped into the lineup for Matt Irwin. He skated 17:24.

5. The big picture

The Sabres are now 2-10-1 since returning from at 15-day, COVID-induced pause on Feb. 15. Six of those losses have come against the Islanders.
"The individual mistakes that we've been making here in New York are something we need to address," Krueger said. "What is it that's causing breakdowns in coverage of the type that we did not see earlier on in the season and have become a habit? They're just killing us defensively. We're giving up much more in the D zone. So, there will be hockey technical things that you look at.
"But above all it will be continued work on the psychology of the situation, getting out of it. It's not a fun time. These aren't easy times but truly they are times where you could grow and learn if you take the right lessons out of it. We need to find lessons right now and really evaluate everything that's within our control as coaches and work together with the players to pull ourselves together."