Tonight the Sabres played a close game that resulted in a 4-3 loss to the Islanders at home with sloppy play costing them once again.

The Sabres looked good early, getting some good chances and we got on the board first, 9:03 into the first period as the Workhorse from Whitehorse, Dylan Cozens picked up his first goal of the season on the Sabres second power play opportunity of the game, chasing the rebound and putting it in the back of the net. Good to see him score after he’s struggled to start the year. Bo Horvat quickly tied the game up for the Isles just 40 seconds later, getting behind the Sabres defense and flipping the puck right over Levi. Solid first period for the Sabres on both ends of the ice. I was happy with that twenty minutes.

The Islanders took the lead 5:25 into the second period, on an incredible individual effort from Maxim Tsyplakov, taking the puck away from the Sabres, wheeling down the ice, deking out Levi and scoring. Can’t even knock that goal. Just a perfect play by him. They extended the lead with 7:40 left in the second period with a power play goal from Kyle Palmieri as he beat Levi short side as he was sliding over. That wasn’t a great period for Buffalo.

After a missed penalty shot attempt by Jason Zucker, he still got on the board just a few seconds later as he tipped in a shot from Tage Thompson to put the Sabres back within one 5:27 into the third. With 11:52 to go in regulation, JG Pageau tipped in a shot by Bo Horvat from behind the net to put the Isles back up 4-2. We got back within one with 1:01 left in regulation with a good second effort on a tip in from Owen Power, who had some nice offensive chances earlier in the game. We couldn’t get the tying goal and that’s all she wrote.

FINAL: Sabres 3, Islanders 4

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Not a great game for the Sabres after the nice start in the first period, but it was just a sloppy game tonight that if this wasn’t against another lousy team in the Islanders I think would’ve been an even bigger loss. We got just barely outshot 36-35 yet slightly outplayed the Isles by an expected goal rate of 3.62-3.3.

There were some nice notes to this game though. Jason Zucker picked up the Gordie Howe hat trick with a goal, assist, and a fight. I thought Owen Power, who got his goal late and Alex Tuch, who had some great chances and couldn’t bury played well. Sorokin was good for the Isles in goal, but at the end of the day this just wasn’t a good game for Buffalo collectively.

Back at it in Detroit tomorrow night.

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