'We lost our patience' | Sabres let lead slip in OT loss to Flyers

Brandon Montour lifted his stick and flashed a wide smile as his teammates surrounded him. The Buffalo Sabres were rolling, up 3-0 during the second period after Montour jumped in as the late man on the rush and beat Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Elliott from the slot.
Hours later, Montour was left answering as to how and why the game turned.
"We owned them the first two periods," the defenseman said. "Why can't we finish them?"

Sean Couturier deflected a shot past Linus Ullmark with 1:29 seconds remaining to complete the three-goal, third-period comeback and Ivan Provorov scored on a 2-on-1 rush just 42 seconds into overtime to clinch a 4-3 win for the Flyers at KeyBank Center on Monday.
The loss extended Buffalo's winless streak to 18 games (0-15-3). It was compounded by the loss of rookie forward Dylan Cozens, who left with an upper-body injury after being checked into the boards by Philippe Myers during the first period.
Here are five takeaways.

1. How it happened

Rasmus Dahlin summed the third period up in two words.
"Panic attack," he said.
Interim head coach Don Granato, however, felt the result was less about panic than it was about missed execution.
"We made bad decisions and we made some mistakes under pressure," Granato said. "I wouldn't say we panicked. That is going a little bit too far. We didn't retreat. We stayed active, we stayed aggressive. We just didn't make the right decisions.
"Maybe we got a little excited and we made the wrong decisions. I just went through some clips and it looked to me we got a little overexcited and lost our game in the process of being overexcited. But I don't think there was panic and the sense of fear that maybe there has been."

Kevin Hayes put the Flyers on the board 1:50 into the third period, burying a one-time shot after a turnover by the Sabres on an attempted breakout along the boards. Another defensive-zone turnover preceded Claude Giroux's goal, scored at the 10:51 mark.
Couturier tied the game with Elliott pulled for the extra attacker, just seconds after a lunging attempt by Tage Thompson went wide of the empty net. Provorov's 2-on-1 goal in overtime came after Dahlin made an aggressive play to try and force a takeaway low in the Philadelphia zone.
"Again, you look at that, there was no panic there," Granato said. "We just were trying to score too darn bad so we didn't read situations. We lost our patience."

2. What went right early

Granato spoke earlier in the day about being decisive and making simple, aggressive plays when necessary to snuff out opposing attacks and sustain offense. The Sabres did that for stretches over the first 40 minutes, turning hard forechecks into goals on two occasions.
Henri Jokiharju opened the scoring during the first period. Kyle Okposo won a puck battle along the left-wing boards and kicked it up to Curtis Lazar, who found Jokiharju all alone at the other side of the zone. Jokiharju had time and space to creep into the faceoff circle and let go of a shot.

Cody Eakin doubled the lead early in the second period, this time after Riley Sheahan got the first touch on the forecheck. Sheahan shoveled a pass to Tobias Rieder, who quickly set up a one-time shot for Eakin from the right circle.

"We have to continue to push forward," Granato said. "When I spoke to the team a week ago, I said, 'In one week, we'll be a better team … than we are today.' I said that at that time and we are a better team than we were one week ago. Our players feel it, they sense it, they know it."

3. Update on Cozens to come Tuesday

Granato was asked if the rookie could be out "a while" after exiting early.
"I hope not," he said. "I don't have a report on it from a side of severity. … Upper-body injury and there's a range of timetables for that. So, I hope not."
The coach said he expects further evaluations in the morning.

4. Thompson active in return to lineup

Thompson returned after missing the past three games with an illness and tallied a team-high 11 shot attempts, including five shots on goal. He chased his own rebound on one of those shots to set up Montour's goal during the second period.

5. Up next

The Sabres return to practice Tuesday in preparation for another meeting with the Flyers at KeyBank Center on Wednesday night.
"All you can take from this game is, did this experience make you better?" Granato said. "So, now it's our job to make certain that happens. Because we went through it."