Sharpen Up: All the Sabres news you need to know on February 19, 2020

The Sabres were unable to come up with two points last night in their 7-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.
Brandon Montour scored the game's first two goals, but Ottawa scored four in a span of 3:29 before the end of the first period. Kyle Okposo and Victor Olofsson also scored for Buffalo.
The Sabres will return to practice tomorrow. They'll take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road Saturday afternoon.
Here's what you need to know.

A look back at last night

From the Postgame Report…
Marcus Johansson drew a hooking call midway through the first period Tuesday night, and it seemed the Buffalo Sabres were in position to tighten their grip on their game against the Ottawa Senators. The Sabres already led, 2-0, on the strength of a pair of goals from Brandon Montour.
Instead, the power play served as a launching pad for the Senators.
Vladislav Namestnikov got in alone on Carter Hutton and scored Ottawa's league-leading 13th shorthanded goal with three seconds remaining on the penalty, setting off a string of four goals in 3:29 that sent the Senators into the first intermission with a 4-2 lead.
The Sabres twice cut the deficit to one goal but never fully recovered in a 7-4 loss.

"We were doing the things we thought we needed to do to play well against Ottawa and that power play, from the get-go, just didn't have the work ethic that we need," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "We know that Ottawa's the best shorthanded scoring team in the league. We had awareness of that. They had two scoring chances on that power play. Very disappointing."
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Sabres, who had a chance to move within six points of third place in the Atlantic Division with Toronto's loss in Pittsburgh.

The Senators fed off the momentum of Namestnikov's goal, tying the game on a shot from in tight by Artem Anisimov less than two minutes later. Drake Batherson got in behind the Sabres defense and buried his own rebound on the very next shift, then Anisimov added a second goal on a power play.
"We just lost everything that we had built during the first 10 minutes," Krueger said. "We broke down in the D-zone like we haven't been lately. We stood and watched a team that went hungry on their toes and felt the opportunity and they used it."
Click here for the full recap.

Amerks in action tonight

The Rochester Americans continue their season-long six-game homestand tonight the first-place Belleville Senators visiting Blue Cross Arena at 7:05 p.m.
The Amerks need just one more win to reach the 30-win mark for the fourth consecutive season and third straight under head coach Chris Taylor.
With the team's next win, Taylor will become the first Amerks head coach since Randy Cunneyworth, the all-time winningest coach in franchise history, to lead his team to 30 or more wins in each of his first three seasons behind the bench.
Check out this week's Amerks Update for more.