Sabres' power play unable to capitalize in loss to Sens

Craig Anderson leaned toward the bench as the Sabres attempted to keep possession through the neutral zone, but the suffocating play of the Ottawa Senators kept him on the ice.
Roughly 40 seconds remained by the time the Sabres were finally able to pull Anderson for an extra attacker. Brady Tkachuk deposited an empty-net goal shortly thereafter to clinch a 3-1 victory for the Senators at KeyBank Center on Thursday.
"They played, you know, a pretty stable 1-1-3 or whatever in the neutral zone and we just weren't able to kind of get through it," Anderson said.

Sabres alternate captain Kyle Okposo pointed to the Senators' ability to stick to their game plan as the difference in a game that lacked a rhythm due to a wealth of penalties.
Buffalo earned six power plays during the first two periods but scored once, when Okposo fooled Ottawa goaltender Anton Forsberg with a deke late in the first.

"We just didn't execute at the level that we usually do," Okposo said. "Like I said, I give them a lot of credit. All they did was work. That's all they did. We struggled getting entry into the zone and seemed to frustrate us a little bit, especially on the power play.
"When you're struggling like that on the PP and things, you're not getting the usual chances you are, you've just got to shoot and get it back and then shoot again. And we talked about that between the second and third, but we didn't get another one."
Zach Sanford scored the tying goal for the Senators with 3:56 remaining in the second period. Austin Watson deflected a slap shot for the winning goal with 9:11 to play in the third.
The Senators' workmanlike approach held the Sabres to four shots in the final 20 minutes.
"I think we had not enough work ethic, not enough compete in [the power plays] and it … bled into the five-on-five game from that point," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "… The third period, it was, to me, an accumulation of the first two. It was just finally the tipping point. They finally got the edge."

The Sabres entered the evening having earned a point in each of their three games since the All-Star break (2-0-1).
"It felt like, 'OK, we won a couple games, and we can just flip a switch on,'" Granato said. "And we thought we could just flip a switch on. And you can't do that in competition at this level. And that, to me, is in essence what I feel we saw tonight."

Anderson on facing the Sens

Anderson played the Senators for the first time since departing the franchise during the 2020 offseason. The 40-year-old is Ottawa's all-time leader in wins and games played by a goaltender.
While many of the players have changed in the ensuing two seasons, Anderson said he shared laughs with members of the staff throughout the night.

"I was giggling most of the time," he said. "Spent a good eight, nine years with most of those guys, the staff members over there. It was just good to see them, smile at them. They think it's great that I'm still 40 and still playing and I think it's great that they still laugh at me. So, you know, I think it's just fun."

Up next

The Sabres' three-game homestand concludes Saturday afternoon against the Colorado Avalanche. Tickets are available here.
Coverage on MSG begins at 12:30 p.m. The puck drops at 1.