When the Sabres take the ice for their game against Pittsburgh on Saturday, it will mark two full weeks since they earned their last victory with a 2-1, come-from-behind effort in Ottawa. At that point, they had won four of five games and had a record above .500. In each of those four wins, they allowed one goal or less and never scored more than three themselves.
"We weren't scoring tons of goals, we were getting big goals here and there but we were playing solid through each zone," Moulson said. "That's something we definitely have to get back to."
Even during their current streak, the Sabres have played tight games that they lost due to casual moments that turn into goals against. Their message on Friday was that they need to eliminate those mistakes, even if it means opting against taking risky chances themselves.
"We've got to make sure we're playing the right way and we can't press," Okposo said. "We've got to try and stay the course and make sure that we're doing the little things right because that's where you're going to get more opportunities. We've had some good opportunities, we've played the right way for a while and then for whatever reason we have a couple minutes where we don't and we give them opportunities and they end up in the back of our net.
"As a team, we just can't do that. We have to make sure that we're doing the right things all the time. If that means sacrificing a chance here or there to not give up a 3-on-2 then that's what we have to do."
The amount of quality chances the Sabres have missed as of late is difficult to explain even for the players themselves, but they seem to be in agreement that they've been "gripping their sticks" offensively. The remedy, they hope, will be getting back to shutdown style that made them successful early on.
"Personally, I always believe if you're thinking negative or frustrated about something then it's going to create negative results," Moulson said. "That could be part of it. But we just have to bear down. You're not going to get one chance a game, there's going to be numerous chances. I think right now we have a tendency to miss one chance, we're all of a sudden gripping our sticks right away.
"I think it's something that needs to stop, it will be something that'll be taken care of by playing the right way and knowing that when you're going to shut teams down you don't have to grip your stick so tight."
