Sharpen Up: All the Sabres news you need to know on December 30, 2019

The Buffalo Sabres will look to shake off last night's loss to Boston when they return to practice today at KeyBank Center. We'll have full coverage for you here on Sabres.com.
Next up for Buffalo: the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night for a New Year's Eve home game. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30. Tickets are on sale now.
Here's what you need to know.

A look back at last night

From the Postgame Report…
The Buffalo Sabres' penalty killers were able to hold off the Boston Bruins' attack for 40 minutes, but a pair of goals on an extended power play early in the third period lifted Boston to a 3-2 victory Sunday night at TD Garden.
Johan Larsson was called for tripping and hooking on the same sequence 1:23 into the third and then Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk scored twice 18 seconds apart on the four-minute man advantage to put the Bruins ahead.
Rasmus Ristolainen scored his fourth goal of the season, making it 1-1 and Curtis Lazar also tallied for Buffalo. Lazar's goal came just 2:13 after DeBruk's second goal to put the Sabres within one.
"The way we played as a team here, we do this consistently, we're going to get results," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "It's finding the confidence and the belief and keep digging down to continue to stick with the game plan that we had here today. This is one of the premier teams in the league, but right now, shortly after, the pain is what dominates. We again have to use pain to get stronger."

Buffalo's penalty kill was 3-for-3, allowing just three shots on goal before the Bruins' 4-minute power play early in the third put them ahead. Boston's power play officially finished 2-for-6 with 7:49 of ice time.
Sabres rookie Rasmus Asplund had two scoring chances in the second period while shorthanded. First, he picked up the puck at the top of the left faceoff circle and managed to get a shot on goal. Crashing the net for a rebound, he ended up in the back of the net, taking the cage off its moorings. He later put a shot on goal from the right wing with Lazar going to the net.
"We did such a good job, especially killing them off in the second period," Lazar said. "If you give a team with a power play like that opportunity after opportunity, it's going to come back and get you. Overall, I thought our team did a great job battling. We stuck with it all the way through and made things interesting. There's a lot of positives to go off of here."
Read the full recap here.

World Juniors update

The preliminary round of the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic is nearing its conclusion.
Yesterday, Team USA defeated Russia 3-1. Sabres prospect (and U.S. captain) Mattias Samuelsson skated 19:36, recorded two shots and was a plus-2 in the game.
Today, Dylan Cozens and Team Canada play Germany. Matej Pekar and the Czech Republic will face the Americans.