5 takeaways | Sabres unable to overcome early setbacks in loss to Rangers

Don Granato knew his team would face a curveball in its matchup with the high-flying New York Rangers on Sunday after three straight games against the defense-oriented Boston Bruins.
"They sling pucks east-west, spread the ice out very well," Granato said. "… It's certainly a different look from a coverage standpoint than we've been playing against. We knew that coming in, we spoke of that. Didn't show a lot because you don't want your guys thinking too much.
"So, we covered it, we showed a few simple clips, and we still struggled at it. … Now we get a chance to play them right away again and it will be nice to see how we can respond."

The Sabres adjusted on the fly to tighten the score late but ultimately fell short in a 6-3 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The two teams meet for the final time this season on Tuesday.
Sam Reinhart followed his hat trick on Friday with a two-point outing, tallying a goal and an assist. Jeff Skinner and Victor Olofsson also scored while Dustin Tokarski allowed five goals on 28 shots.
Here are five takeaways.

1. Zibanejad, Fox drive Rangers' attack

Mika Zibanejad completed his third hat trick of the season just 2:05 into the second period, at which point the Rangers had already built a 4-1 lead. Adam Fox tallied three assists to increase his season total to 41, most among NHL defensemen.
Zibanejad and Fox were the primary orchestrators of an offensive attack that knocked the Sabres off balance during the first 30 minutes. Zibanejad opened the scoring as the trailing man on a rush, utilizing open space as the Buffalo backcheck had its attention down low. Fox found a seam through the middle of the zone to set up a Kaapo Kakko goal later in the period.
Those two factors - overcommitting on the backcheck and allowing the Sabres to find seams on offense - came up most when players spoke afterward.
"They spread the zone, they look for seams, and they got guys that can make plays," Skinner said. "You just have to be aware of guys on the back side and when you come back, you can't sort of over backcheck and lose sight of those fourth and fifth guys coming up behind you and joining the rush."
The Sabres did adjust and held an advantage in 5-on-5 shot attempts and scoring chances during the second and third periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. They twice cut the deficit to two goals, but Kakko scored for the second time during a third-period power play and Kevin Rooney found an empty net late to stave off the comeback.

2. Granato sticks with Tokarski

Granato said he did give thought to pulling Tokarski following New York's fourth goal, a Zibanejad attempt on the rush that beat the goaltender between the pads.

"Obviously, I opted not to and Dustin responded fine from that standpoint," Granato said. "We just didn't score enough."
Granato said the decision to start Tokarski was made in part to give rookie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen an up-close look at the Rangers before potentially making his second career start on Tuesday.

3. Reinhart stays hot

Reinhart upped his team-leading goal total to 21 in just 47 games, four shy of the career high he set in 82 contests in 2017-18. He buried a one-time shot from the left faceoff circle, the product of a quick feed through traffic from Rasmus Dahlin.

Reinhart now has eight multi-point outings this season, including three in the past five games.

4. Olofsson finds new ground

Olofsson found open ice outside of his usual office in the right faceoff circle for his power-play goal during the second period. With the four penalty killers converging low toward the net, Olofsson wound up just above the slot and one-timed a pass from Reinhart.

"I feel like a lot of teams are putting one guy kind of close to me and I don't get as many one-timers from my usual spot, so I've got to find some other looks," Olofsson said. "Today, I think it was kind of a broken play and their guy lost his stick, which opened up a lot of ice in the middle. Definitely, I'm trying to find some other looks other than just that circle for the one-timer."
The goal was Olofsson's 13th of the season and seventh on the power play.

5. Up next

The Sabres will regroup with a scheduled day off on Monday and then have a chance to rebound in their season-series finale with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. Puck drop is scheduled for 7.