At The Final Horn: Islanders 3 - Sabres 0

The Buffalo Sabres were once again stymied by a stout defensive effort from the New York Islanders on Tuesday, falling 3-0 at KeyBank Center.
Carter Hutton made 21 saves for Buffalo.
Anders Lee and John-Gabriel Pageau scored for New York. Goaltender Ilya Sorokin notched his first career victory, stopping all 20 shots he faced. Pageau is on a four-game goal streak. Lee added his second goal into an empty net with 0.3 seconds remaining.
Buffalo fell to the Islanders 3-1 last night. The two clubs will meet again next Monday on Long Island.

What happened

For the second night in a row, the Sabres found themselves trailing the Islanders 2-0 after 20 minutes of play. On a rush into the zone, Noah Dobson hit Lee with a pass that one-timed into the net at the 4:42 mark to open the scoring and then Pageau roofed one over Hutton's glove from the left faceoff circle to make it 2-0.
Buffalo's best chance of the first period came when Taylor Hall was stopped on a partial breakaway with 7:42 remaining.
Sorokin was steady between the pipes and made some key stops, including a great glove save on a Victor Olofsson shot 7:50 into the third period. He also stoned Reinhart with 9:28 remaining with a right pad save.
Buffalo had a power-play goal called back after a coach's challenge with 6:59 left. Olofsson put the puck in to seemingly extend his point streak to eight games, but upon review, it was determined that Buffalo entered the zone offside, negating the play.

Worth mentioning

Jake McCabe returned to Buffalo's lineup, skating 18:58 with three hits. He had been in the NHL's COVID protocol and missed Monday's game. Rasmus Ristolainen, Dylan Cozens and Curtis Lazar were released from protocol in the hours before the game. Casey Mittelstadt is currently the only player in protocol.
The NHL is sharing the names of players who are "unavailable" to teams due to COVID protocols and updating a public list each day.
These "COVID Protocol Related Absences" can be the result of a number of factors including, among others:
(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol;
(2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol;
(3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol;
(4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or;
(5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol.
No additional detail will be provided either by the League or the team, including the precise reason a player is unavailable or how long he might be out.
Rasmus Asplund skated in his second game of the season after being recalled from the taxi squad prior to the opening faceoff.

Coming up

The Sabres will hit the road for a four-game trip that starts against the Washington Capitals on Thursday.
Stay tuned to Sabres.com, the team's official social media platforms and the new Sabres app for the latest news.