The Sabres had chances throughout the night - they were outshooting the Predators 10-3 midway through the first period - but never got the bounce they needed to solve Rinne. Jack Eichel and Kyle Okposo both ripped shots off the post. Other shots hit net-front traffic and drifted just wide of the net.
Most chances were simply swallowed by Rinne before the Sabres could do anything with them. Housley was largely pleased with the effort and performance of his team but said he would have liked to see them whacking at rebounds more often in the first period.
Eichel, playing his second game back from a high-ankle sprain, had as many chances as anyone. He generated a game-high 11 shot attempts, including five shots on goal.
"Give him credit. He's one of the best goalies to ever play in our league for a reason," Eichel said. "Obviously in a game like that I think you've got to find one, and I thought we had a little bit of a hard time doing that.
"Whether it's the second and third opportunities or, you don't want to make the extra pass but against a goalie like that maybe you're thinking about it because of how calm he is in there. He doesn't leave a lot of pucks hanging around his crease, he gobbles a lot of stuff up. He made it tough for us, but we competed hard. You've got to like the effort but at the end of the day it's a 4-0 loss."
Linus Ullmark made 28 saves for Buffalo in his first NHL start since Jan. 11 and stood tall for the Sabres from the opening puck drop - literally. Victor Arvidsson raced past the defense for a mini-breakaway off the opening draw, leaving Ullmark to make a pad save less than 10 seconds into the game.
The Predators finally broke a scoreless tie with a pair of second-period goals from Mike Fisher and Ryan Johansen. Fisher opened the scoring with 7:31 remaining in the period, battling in front of Ullmark and deflecting a shot from the point by Miikka Salomaki. The Sabres challenged for goalie interference on the play, but to no avail.
Housley said he felt that Fisher's skate tangled with Ullmark's, preventing the goalie from getting into position.
"Their skate went into our goalie in the crease, in the blue paint," he said. "I would call that 100 out of 100 times. To me, that's goalie interference. His skate hit Linus' skate, which doesn't allow him to get down into the butterfly and make the save. So, I don't know what you call goalie interference anymore.
Johansen scored on a 3-on-2 rush less than five minutes later. Ryan Hartman and Filip Forsberg scored goals in the final four minutes of regulation to pad the lead, which Housley said were of no fault to the goaltender.
"I really liked Linus' game," Housley said. "I feel bad there was four goals, because the last two were sort of mistakes that we made. But he stood tall, he made some big saves when he had to. It's just unfortunate. I really liked the way he played tonight. I thought he was really in control."
