5 takeaways | Power play falls short in loss to Bruins

Before the Boston Bruins widened the gap with a string of third-period goals, the Sabres had ample opportunity to erase a one-goal deficit on Thursday.
Lack of success on the power play factored largely in a second straight loss.
"Those are moments in the game where you can kind of turn the tide, gain some momentum and capitalize and get a get a goal," Jeff Skinner said afterward. "We're not doing that."

The Sabres went 0-for-5 on the power play - all during the first two periods - against the Bruins' top-ranked penalty kill in a 5-1 loss. They were 0-for-6 during a 2-0 loss to the Bruins on Tuesday.
Arttu Ruotsalainen scored the lone goal for the Sabres, who conclude a three-game set with the Bruins at KeyBank Center on Friday. Dustin Tokarski made 33 saves.
David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand each tallied a goal and an assist for the Bruins.
Here are five takeaways.

1. Frustration settles in on the power play

The Sabres tweaked their units after the 0-for-6 night on Tuesday, promoting Dylan Cozens to the top grouping along with Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Reinhart, Casey Mittelstadt, and Victor Olofsson.
Interim head coach Don Granato said he saw intricacies to build off with that look but felt frustration threw the power play off its game early.
"We had five power plays, I believe," Granato said. "We allowed ourselves to get frustrated partway through the first one. … And then that carried over to maybe squeezing our sticks tight the rest of the way."
The Sabres finished with a combined five shots on goal over the course of their five opportunities.
"It's no secret how guys score goals on the power play," Mittelstadt said. "You look at the other teams and you look at a team like Boston - in the playoffs, good power play - they snap it around and when they see the shot, they got a guy in front and fire it and go get it back and do it again.
"Eventually, if you keep getting it back, you're going to find seam or find someone open. Yeah, that's another part of it, for sure. There's some things we got to work on with that."

2. A "more aggressive" game at 5-on-5

The fact that the Sabres had five power plays over the first 40 minutes was an indicator of a better performance at even strength than the one they put together on Tuesday.
Buffalo held a 13-9 edge in scoring chances at 5-on-5 during the first two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. Boston pulled ahead late during the second on a shot from the point by Matt Grzelcyk that beat Dustin Tokarski cleanly to his glove side.
The game tipped during the third period, with Pastrnak and Nick Ritchie beating Tokarski for goals just 1:06 apart. David Krejci added the final goal with 1:58 remaining.
"We were missing an aggressive attack, puck pressure mentality (on Tuesday)," Granato said. "We were better in that area tonight. We played better tonight, there's no question."

3. Strong forechecking leads to Ruotsalainen's goal

The young trio of Anders Bjork, Cozens, and Ruotsalainen put together a strong shift in the offensive zone to earn the Sabres' lone goal of the night.
Ruotsalainen knocked a defender off the puck behind the Boston net and followed it up along the boards to Cozens, who stripped it away from Sean Kuraly at the point. Cozens passed to Bjork, who attacked with speed before finding Ruotsalainen for a tap-in goal.

"Hit the reset button on that over and over and that's what we want to do over and over, shift after shift," Granato said. "The Mittelstadt line had a couple of cases that were similar. That pressure, playing with that energy. For us, it's a process of being able to do that each and every shift."

4. Borgen returns on defense

Will Borgen returned from a 32-game absence stemming from a fracture in his right arm. He replaced Colin Miller in the lineup and skated 18:08, including 2:12 on the penalty kill.
The addition of the 24-year-old Borgen gave the Sabres defense corps an average age of 23 years, 14 days - the youngest in the league this season, according to NHL Stats.

5. The big picture

The youth movement continues when the Sabres and Bruins conclude their three-game set on Friday. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, 22, is expected to make his NHL debut.
Luukkonen would become the fifth rookie to debut this season, following Cozens, Jacob Bryson, Ruotsalainen, and Mattias Samuelsson.
Coverage on Friday begins at 6:30 p.m. on MSG. Puck drop is scheduled for 7.