Postgame Report | Sabres unable to slow down Stars' attack in home loss

Kyle Okposo, Rasmus Dahlin, and Don Granato all emphasized the same sentiment inside KeyBank Center late Thursday night: The Sabres' 10-4 loss to the Dallas Stars was not acceptable, but it was also not indicative of who they are.
"That didn't look like our team," Granato said. "We weren't sharp. We, at points in that game, played with a little bit of frustration and not the fearless way we need to play, and that compounds and did so tonight.
"A loss is a loss. Ugly, pretty, it's a loss. We don't like it one bit and we need to find a way that it makes us better. I trust that our guys will find a way that this will make us a better.

The Sabres fell behind 3-0 before Jordan Greenway put them on the board with 24.8 seconds remaining in the first period. The two teams traded goals until 3:49 into the third period, when Jeff Skinner scored to make it a 5-3 game.
The Stars responded with a goal from Evgenii Dadonov with 10:48 remaining, then added four more goals in the third period.
"You cannot have fear or doubt because of this," Granato told the team afterward. "You just can't. … And that creeps in. It crept in in the middle of the game, fear and doubt. It's only natural that it creeps in. But you have to knock that out. The faster, the better."
The Sabres are trying to keep ground in the playoff race, having begun the week four points out of the first Wild Card spot. They lost closely contested games to the Oilers and Islanders on Monday and Tuesday before hosting the Stars tonight.
"We might put too much pressure on ourselves," Dahlin said. "We really want this. You really, really want to give it a push. So, I don't know what it is, maybe we think too much and whatnot. I just know that tomorrow is a big day and we got to go back work."
Added Okposo: "I know that we're a young team, but we're in a pretty special position with the group that we have. It would be a shame to come out and play like that. But in saying that, it's uncharacteristic of our group. We're going to regroup tomorrow and find a way to get better."

How it happened

PERIOD 1
The Stars forced a pair of turnovers to open the scoring on a deflection from Wyatt Johnston 7:06 into the period. The 1-0 score held until a hectic final minute.
Joe Pavelski scored a one-timer on the power play with 53 seconds remaining. Jamie Benn added a third goal from point-blank range with 34.7 on the clock.
The Sabres managed to stop the bleeding with Greenway's goal, which was scored with 24.8 seconds remaining. Greenway cut across the Dallas net and redirected a pass from Jeff Skinner.

Dallas went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill in the period.
PERIOD 2
Dallas outshot Buffalo 18-5 and extended its lead with goals from Joel Kiviranta and Ryan Suter.
Kiviranta scored 8:37 into the period on a one-timer from in front of the net. The Sabres answered quickly with a goal from Okposo - who buried a feed from JJ Peterka - but Suter scored to restore the three-goal lead 47 seconds later.

PERIOD 3
Skinner buried a shot from the half wall off an offensive-zone faceoff with 16:11 remaining.

The Stars answered again 5:23 later with a shot from Dadonov, which ignited a run of four goals in 3:03. Radek Faksa scored twice - on a crossing pass in front and then on a breakaway - and Roope Hintz added a goal on the breakaway.
Olofsson scored with 7:29 remaining. The Stars responded with 3:38 on the clock, this one a shot from the right circle by Mason Marchment.

What we learned

1. Greenway's goal was his first as a member of the Sabres. He spent the game playing on the top line alongside Skinner and Tage Thompson. His forecheck helped Skinner draw a high-sticking penalty on the opening shift of the game.
Sabres coach Don Granato said prior to the game that he expected Greenway's size and physicality to give the Stars defensemen an added element to prepare for.
"Do you want a certain type of defenseman taking hits and guys finishing hits at the size that obviously Jordan is?" Granato said. "So, it's a whole other dynamic that we now have at our disposal to see where we want to go with it."
2.Eric Comrie finished the night with 39 save on 49 shots.
"That's not on him at all," Okposo said. "Nobody is blaming him. He hung in there. We absolutely hung him out to dry and that can't happen."
3.Skinner tallied his 64th and 65th points of the season to set a new career high. He previously had 63 points in four separate seasons, including twice with the Sabres.
4. Mattias Samuelsson and Riley Stillman both returned to the lineup after missing two games with upper-body injuries.

Up next

The Sabres will be back in black and red to host the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Tickets are available here.
Coverage on MSG begins at 4:30 p.m. The puck drops at 5 on MSG and WGR 550.