Sharpen Up: April 23, 2021 | Sabres to celebrate Fan Appreciation Night

Welcome to Sharpen Up. It's Fan Appreciation Night as the Buffalo Sabres wrap up their five-game homestand and three-game set against the Boston Bruins at KeyBank Center.
Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG begins at 6:30.
The Sabres are looking to rebound from a 5-1 loss to the Bruins last night. Arttu Ruotsalainen scored Buffalo's only goal. We'll have more on that later.
Stay tuned for pregame interviews later this morning as we begin to preview tonight's matchup. Rookie goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who was selected by Buffalo in the second round of the 2017 NHL Draft, is slated to start the first game of his career.
Luukkonen is set to become the fifth rookie to debut this season, following Dylan Cozens, Jacob Bryson, Ruotsalainen, and Mattias Samuelsson.
Here's what you need to know.

Fan Appreciation Night details

The Sabres will host the team's annual Fan Appreciation Night tonight at KeyBank Center, during the MSG broadcast and on social media.
Click here for more details. Here are some of the highlights:
Fans in attendance will receive a token of appreciation at their seats when entering the bowl. The Sabres Store will be offering 40 percent off each fan's total purchase at the game that night (certain restrictions apply).
This year, random season-ticket holders attending the game will be part of the "We Score, You Win" promotion. During the game, those lucky fans will paired with a Sabres player. If that player scores in the game, that fan will win an autographed jersey.
Season-ticket holders should also keep checking the team's social media channels - including the exclusive Season-Ticket Holder Facebook group - throughout the day. Random season-ticket holders will be selected to win autographed jerseys.
All fans will have an opportunity to win great prizes by entering contests and sweepstakes on social media as well.
More fans will have the opportunity to earn swag when they make their picks in Friday's edition of "Predict The Sabres."
Tune in to the game on MSG on Friday for Fan Appreciation Goes Digital festivities. Prizes will be given away during each intermission and the postgame show.

The team will honor the late Teddy Steeg as the 2020-21 Fan of the Year with a pregame tribute. His friends and family have been invited to the game and will sit in Section 206, where 64 cardboard cutouts had been purchased in his memory.
Read more about Teddy's fandom here.

Last night's recap

Over the last two games against Boston, the Sabres are 0-for-11 on the power play. They went 0-for-5 last night with five shots on goal. You can read all about it in our Postgame Report.
Before the Bruins widened the gap with a string of third-period goals, the Sabres had ample opportunity to erase a one-goal deficit on Thursday.
Lack of success on the power play factored largely in a second straight loss.

"Those are moments in the game where you can kind of turn the tide, gain some momentum and capitalize and get a get a goal," Jeff Skinner said afterward. "We're not doing that."

Interim head coach Don Granato said he saw intricacies to build off with that look but felt frustration threw the power play off its game early.
"We had five power plays, I believe," Granato said. "We allowed ourselves to get frustrated partway through the first one. … And then that carried over to maybe squeezing our sticks tight the rest of the way."
The Sabres tweaked their units after the 0-for-6 night on Tuesday, promoting Dylan Cozens to the top grouping along with Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Reinhart, Casey Mittelstadt, and Victor Olofsson.

"It's no secret how guys score goals on the power play," Mittelstadt said. "You look at the other teams and you look at a team like Boston - in the playoffs, good power play - they snap it around and when they see the shot, they got a guy in front and fire it and go get it back and do it again.
"Eventually, if you keep getting it back, you're going to find seam or find someone open. Yeah, that's another part of it, for sure. There's some things we got to work on with that."
Before the game, associate general manager Jason Karmanos joined Brian Duff and Martin Biron on MSG. You can watch that interview here:

Tonight's matchup

Let's see what @SabresPR has for us in the Game Notes…

Quinn out for season

Prospect Jack Quinn underwent successful surgery to repair a hernia and will miss the rest of the season, the Sabres announced Thursday. The estimated recovery time for the injury is six weeks.
Quinn, 19, was selected by the Sabres with the eighth overall pick in last year's NHL Draft. He recorded 52 goals and 89 points in 62 games for the Ottawa 67's last season. The forward tallied nine points (2+7) in 15 games this year as the youngest player on the Rochester Americans.