5 takeaways | Sabres' season ends with loss to Penguins

Don Granato remained proud of his players even after a shutout loss.
Granato took over as interim coach of the Sabres on March 17 and challenged the team to learn a possession-based, up-tempo game on the fly. He set his sights toward the future, putting more and more on the plates of young players who figure to be a part of the organization's core. He increased practice time at the expense of rest.
The players responded all the way to the end of a 1-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their season finale at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.
"As a coach, you have nothing if you can't push guys," Granato said afterward. "And I really felt the best thing was to be able to push guys. Guys wanted to be pushed. They wanted more. They felt they could give more, and they had more within themselves.
"That was something very nice and very special to have as a coach."
Here are five takeaways from the final game of the season.

1. Sabres adjust from Thursday

Granato said after an 8-4 loss on Thursday that he felt his players got caught up in trying to trade chances with the more experienced Penguins. He liked their mindset during practice on Friday and felt they adjusted well in the rematch.
The Sabres outshot the Penguins 11-3 during the first period and 29-23 overall. The two teams finished even with eight high-danger scoring chances apiece at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
"I thought our guys did an incredible job with adjustments," Granato said. "We were too loose the other day. We talked about playing ... too much like pond hockey the other day, and we tightened things up. We made a lot of improvements and I was very proud of that."

2. Lagace comes up big for Pittsburgh

Maxime Lagace made his Penguins debut and stopped all 29 shots, including a breakaway attempt from Drake Caggiula during the second period and a point-blank one-timer from Victor Olofsson in the third. Sam Reinhart nearly had the tying goal during the final minute, but his attempt at a bouncing puck sailed wide of the net.
Jeff Carter scored the lone goal of the game for Pittsburgh early in the second period when a rebound deflected into the net off his body.

3. Houser's memorable week

Michael Houser made his fourth straight start and stopped every shot but one, including a highlight-reel save to rob Jake Guentzel during the first period. It was the final chapter in an unforgettable week that began with back-to-back wins for the ninth-year pro in his first NHL games.

That story had taken a turn Thursday, when Houser took the brunt of an all-around sloppy performance by the Sabres and allowed eight goals. He had family and friends in attendance once again Saturday and felt good about the performance in spite of the result.
"Yeah, that was satisfying," Houser said. "Especially it being our last game, just the effort that I thought we showed for all 60 minutes, that was really fun to play behind. We were getting out of our zone extremely well, I thought, the entire game and that made it pretty easy on me."
Prior to Monday, Houser had not played a game above the ECHL level since the 2017-18 season. He had not played a game of any kind in nearly 14 months. His chance in the NHL simply reinforced what he had suspected throughout his long journey.
"I think showing myself was what I wanted to do," he said. "I've always thought that I could play at this level, I've always thought that I could win games here. … I can play here and play well and give our team a chance to win. I think that's all you can ask from a goalie."

4. Houser's impressions

The Sabres finished last in the NHL at 15-34-7. They went 8-11-2 since the beginning of April despite leaning on inexperienced players after trading a quartet of veterans and playing 14 games against playoff teams in Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington, and the New York Islanders.
Houser had watched most of the Sabres games on TV when he was with the Amerks earlier in the season and had an up-close look since signing his NHL deal in March. He answered without hesitation when asked if he feels the team is better than its record suggests.
"I think we're quite a bit better than what the record indicated," he said. "I think we've gotten a lot better, at least since I've joined the team and I could see it from the stands and then on the bench a few games and then behind it the last four.
"… There's so much talent in that room and most of the talent is fairly young. They're only gonna get better. It was a great opportunity for a lot of guys this year to really showcase themselves, especially late in the season. And we started winning some games, too."

5. What's ahead

Sabres players will meet with the media on Monday and Tuesday, followed by season-ending press conferences with Granato and general manager Kevyn Adams on Wednesday.
Stay tuned to Sabres.com for coverage throughout the week.