Sharpen Up: January 19, 2018

They came back on three occasions, but a late goal from New York Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich proved to be the difference in a 4-3 loss for the Sabres at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
Kyle Okposo, Justin Falk and Rasmus Ristolainen scored goals for the Sabres to erase deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, respectively. Ristolainen's goal - a shot through traffic on the power play - tied the game at 3-3 with 5:01 remaining, only for Buchnevich to answer with the game-winning goal barely a minute later.
Robin Lehner made 29 saves for Buffalo.

The game was Buffalo's first coming off the five-day bye week and, all things considered, the Sabres were pleased with how they handled parts of their game. They scored twice on the power play and got two goals from defensemen, both areas that have been lacking at times this season.
From the Lexus Postgame Report:
For the Sabres, they saw their net-front presence as a positive as it led to both goals from the defensemen.
"A lot of offense ended up leading off of that. We can do good things when we're getting pucks to the net," Falk said. "The forwards work so hard to get it back to us and it's up to us to either get it back to them in a good spot or get shots on net where we can get offense off of that."
However, lapses coming off of productive shifts have haunted the Sabres all season and that was especially true in the moments leading up to Buchnevich's winner.
"A shift after a goal is huge and we were a little sloppy there. That cost us the game," Ristolainen said. "We've got to be mentally more sharp. …The effort was there. The battle was there. But we're here for winning and we've got to learn."

Inside the dressing room

Okposo stays hot

It looks like five days off weren't enough to cool Okposo, who has now produced multi-point efforts in three straight games. He scored the primary assist on Ristolainen's tally in addition to his own goal, giving him three goals and nine assists in his last 11 games.
Jack Eichel also extended his point streak to four games with a pair of secondary assists. He's scored 19 points (10+9) in 13 games dating back to his hat trick on Dec. 15.

Kids Day is Saturday

The Sabres return home to host the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon, which will double as a Kids Day at KeyBank Center. Buy one full-price Buffalo Creek 300 Level II Ticket and you will be able to purchase up to four additional kids tickets (up to age 15) for $15 each.
The first 5,000 kids in attendance will also receive a Sabres drawstring backpack presented by BlueCross BlueShield.