Sabres focused on cleaning up chances against following loss to Canes

Teuvo Teravainen found open ice in the slot and buried a one-time shot just 2:16 into the contest between the Buffalo Sabres and the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
It proved to be a tone-setting moment in what ended as a 6-2 win for the Hurricanes at PNC Arena.
"This is a noisy building and the first one, for me, was too easy," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "You're on the road and you give up an easy one to start, you're not getting that back from the adrenaline in the building. It's going now. That impacted opening the game up a little more maybe than it should've."

It was the third straight loss in which the Sabres allowed six-plus goals. Goaltender Malcolm Subban - making his team debut after being acquired from the Blackhawks on Wednesday - allowed six goals on 25 shots before leaving with an injury with 10:03 remaining in the third period.
Granato felt the Sabres allowed too many grade-A chances, beginning when Sebastian Aho carried the puck beneath the goal line and found Teravainen alone in the slot during the game's early minutes.
"I thought we gave up too many good chances," he said. "We talk a lot about contested chances. Tonight, we gave up more uncontested chances than normal for us even though the shot volume was much lower. I thought we gave up more uncontested opportunities for them."
The Hurricanes scored three straight goals during the second period, the first two of which occurred just 24 seconds apart. Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter both beat Subban in 1-on-1 situations in the slot.
Carolina's final goal was reminiscent of its first. This time with Buffalo on the power play, Aho corralled his own rebound after Subban stopped him on a breakaway and once again found Teravainen alone for a one-time chance in front of the net.
"Good hockey teams don't need much," Granato said. "They took advantage of just about every little mistake]."
Henri Jokiharju and Zemgus Girgensons scored goals for the Sabres, who managed 11 high-danger chances to the Hurricanes' 12, according to [Natural Stat Trick.
The game concludes a road trip that pitted the Sabres against two of the Eastern Conference's top teams. The Panthers - whom they led 4-1 before falling 7-4 on Thursday - ranked second in the NHL in goals scored per game. The Hurricanes ranked third in goal allowed.
The results spoke for themselves, but Granato continued to strike an optimistic tone in terms of how his young team is handling adversity.
"I believe our guys have more confidence than they actually have had the results," he said. "That's a good thing. That means I can drive them harder. They feel an identity, they see ways that they can be successful, they immediately identify with the mistake they made. So, I think over the next little bit here is a big growing period for us and I think we'll see us become better and better quicker here."

Girgensons echoed that sentiment on behalf of the players.
"We talked in the locker room, times like this you might start blaming other teammates or something for not having success but we're not going there," he said. "We're sticking with it. We believe in each other, the guys believe in each other and I think that's big."

Thompson returns following hit into boards

Tage Thompson returned for the third period after a frightening hit along the boards sent him to the dressing room with 2:13 remaining in the second.
Thompson was carrying the puck along the right-wing wall in the offensive zone when he appeared to turn up and change direction. Trocheck delivered the hit as Thompson was facing the boards, earning a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.

Okposo extends point streak

Kyle Okposo earned the secondary assist on Girgensons' power-play goal to extend his point streak to six games. He leads the Sabres with 17 points (6+11) this season.

Up next

The Sabres open a three-game homestand against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. The game will air exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 p.m.