Sabres unable to overcome slow start against Canes

Starting strong was a point of emphasis for the Buffalo Sabres when they spoke on Thursday morning prior to hosting the Carolina Hurricanes at KeyBank Center. The Sabres were coming off of a 10-game stretch in which they 13 earned points, but too many of those games had required comeback efforts.
In that regard, the Sabres are still searching for answers after a 3-1 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, a game that saw Jeff Skinner open the scoring a mere 1:44 into the contest and the Hurricanes exit the first period with a 2-0 lead.

Buffalo had a chance to jump Carolina in the standings with a regulation win. Instead, they're three points back and lost ground on Boston, Ottawa and Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division as well. Robin Lehner, who allowed two goals on 33 shots, said the team felt embarrassed with its effort to begin the game. His coach agreed, given the circumstances.
"I think we all felt it," Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. "It's disappointing for us in where we're at right now and where we're at in the season. This game should've been a desperation game for us, these two games before the break, and it's disappointing that we come out that way."
Skinner scored his goal after an errant Carolina pass through the neutral zone skipped over Kyle Okposo's stick at the blue line and found him streaking down the right-wing side. He faked a slap shot from the top of the circle and beat Lehner with a wrister for his 13th goal of the season, capitalizing on a play that simply hadn't gone the Sabres' way.
The Hurricanes' second goal, however, was the product of one of the many odd-man rushes the Sabres allowed in the first 20 minutes. On this one in particular, the Sabres had won a faceoff clean in the offensive zone. Lee Stempniak stripped the puck from Rasmus Ristolainen to create a 3-on-1 rush going back the other way and fed defenseman Justin Faulk in the slot. Faulk beat Lehner with a shot to the far-side corner with 2:09 remaining in the period.
"We handed them opportunities in the game right from the start," Bylsma said. "It was an unfortunate break I think on the first goal, we just miss the puck in the neutral zone and give them an opportunity but we gave them three or four other opportunities with our puck execution, our puck management, turning the puck over and that's a huge, huge disappointment for our team."
Buffalo did have another comeback effort in them, but it didn't begin until Johan Larsson put them on the board after 5:32 had elapsed in the third period. That was due in large part to a second period in which the Sabres took four penalties, which prevented them from ever gaining any traction offensively.

"That's taxing on your body," defenseman Zach Bogosian said. "We've got our most skilled guys that probably don't penalty kill, they're sitting on the bench getting cold and the guys that do kill, it's pretty taxing."
The third period started slow too, at least until Sam Reinhart made a perfect pass from behind the net to set up Larsson in the slot. The Sabres found their game a bit from that point on - Jack Eichel took a shot that would've tied the game on the power play if not for a tremendous save by Cam Ward - but, unlike in so many of their other games in the month of December, there was no dramatic finish to regulation.
The game simply ended with Sebastian Aho, the Carolina forward, scoring into an empty net with a minute remaining.
"When we're riding our highs we do pretty well," Bogosian said. "It just seems like the past few games it's been kind of back-and-forth. We're playing well for five or 10 minutes and then the other team will take over for five or 10. We've just got to play a full 60."

Eichel sits for a power play

Although he very nearly tied the game for the Sabres when they had their second power play of the night in the third period, Eichel did not take the ice for the team's first power play of the game in the first period. Bylsma said he was looking for "a different look," but admitted he was also sending a message both to his young forward - scoreless in his last four games - and to the team as a whole.
When asked about the decision, Eichel said that the choice was up to the coach and offered praise toward teammate Matt Moulson, who replaced him on the top unit.
"Mouls has had a couple power-play goals this year for us. We moved the puck well, just changing up looks. I'm on the second power play, I'm out there working hard and I think that's all I really have to say about that," Eichel said.

Franson sits due to injury

Cody Franson participated in warmups with the team and even took the first repetition in line rushes, but did not play due to injury. Justin Falk, a healthy scratch for the last two games, returned to the lineup in Franson's absence.
Nicolas Deslauriers, meanwhile, was back in the lineup after sitting as the healthy scratch for the team's game in Florida on Tuesday. William Carrier sat as the 13th forward after having played in the last 21 games for the Sabres.

Up next

The Sabres will head to Brooklyn and played their final game before the holiday break against the New York Islanders at Barclays Centre on Friday night. It will be the first game back in New York for Kyle Okposo, who spent seven seasons with the Islanders prior to joining the Sabres this past summer.
Coverage on Friday begins at 6:30 p.m. with the TOPS Pregame Show on MSG-B, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops at 7 p.m.