Postgame Report | Sabres remain confident after loss to Bruins

The Buffalo Sabres experienced their first real bump in the road Friday night, but the team isn't panicking by any stretch of the imagination.
The Sabres fell to the Boston Bruins 4-1 at KeyBank Center, marking their first loss of the season. They're now 3-1-0 with a road game on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils up next.

Buffalo outshot the Bruins 36-26 by the end of the night. They came out of the gates strong, as they opened the game outshooting the Bruins 15-7 after the first 20 minutes, but found themselves down 2-0 heading into the intermission.
Despite being behind, the Sabres played a relentless style in the opening period, hounding pucks and being tough on the Bruins. Sabres coach Don Granato said afterwards that he felt his club played "tight" for most of the night and started to play a more perimeter game, looking for the perfect plays as opposed to the more direct ones that helped them to their 3-0-0 start.
After the loss, the players were able to find positives that they can build upon.
"We know mistakes are going to happen. We know it's not always going to go our way. We just try as hard as we can to put that stuff behind us," forward Dylan Cozens, who finished with 6 shots on goal, said. "A bad shift, a bad turnover, put it behind you and move on. Learn from it and keep the positive things going."

Victor Olofsson scored Buffalo's lone goal with 5:25 remaining in regulation to make it 3-1. Craig Anderson stopped 22 of the 25 shots he faced.
"I think we did a lot of good things today. That's a really good hockey team and I think we maybe gave them a little bit too much on odd-man rushes," Olofsson said. "I feel like we gave them a couple of goals that we probably could've prevented. But still, we created a lot of scoring chances and I think that we probably could've scored a couple more."

The Bruins top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak was a force all night against the Sabres. Marchand ended the game with two assists, Pastrnak had one goal on six shots and Bergeron was 10-for-14 (71.4 percent) from the faceoff circle.
Charlie Coyle had three points (1+2) for Boston. Tomas Nosek also scored and Taylor Hall added a late empty-netter.
"Their top players cashed in for them and played very well for them. Credit to them. They were ready for it," Granato said. "They took advantage of our mistakes and that's what good players do. They hold you accountable. Good teams hold you accountable. That was a big part of the game."
Linus Ullmark, in his return to Buffalo after signing a four-year contract with Boston in the offseason, made 35 saves.
The Sabres had back-to-back power-play chances with 3:41 remaining in the first period and came up empty on both occasions. Those provided Buffalo with some of their best chances of the evening, but the bounces just didn't go their way. With about 1:36 remaining in the period, Cozens was denied twice by Ullmark, who was sprawled out onto the ice and out of position. Ullmark's back leg ended up keeping the puck from going over the goal line.

Buffalo finished 0-for-4 with the man advantage. The club went 1-for-2 on the penalty, surrendering their first goal while shorthanded after entering the game 9-for-9 over the first three games.
"We believe we can beat any team in this league and that when we play a top team like that and we go head-to-head with them and go toe-to-toe, there's no one we don't think we can beat," Cozens said.
"We've just got to keep that confidence up every night but at the same time, stay humble. It's not going to come easy. We've just got to work as hard as we can every night."
Faceoff against the Devils is set for 7 p.m. Stay tuned to Sabres.com and the team's official social media channels for lineup news and more throughout the day.
Pregame coverage will begin at 6:30 on MSG. Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will have the call on MSG and WGR 550.
Buffalo's next home game is Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tickets are on sale now.