Taylor Hall could feel the game slipping away from the Buffalo Sabres following a promising start at Nassau Coliseum on Thursday.
"We had three really good shifts to start the game and then it just kind of unravels," Hall said. "You can see every player on our team starts gripping their stick a little bit, starts thinking out there instead of just going and doing and defending hard and playing hard."
The Sabres slipped into a two-goal deficit during the first period and never completely fought their way back in what ended as a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders. The contest opened a three-game series between the two teams on Long Island that concludes with back-to-back set on Saturday and Sunday.
Matt Martin scored a pair of goals for the Islanders, who also received goals from Noah Dobson, Anthony Beauvillier, and Jordan Eberle.
Hall and Rasmus Ristolainen scored goals for the Sabres while Jonas Johansson made a career-high 40 saves.
Here are five takeaways from the loss.
5 takeaways | Sabres open 3-game set with loss to Isles
Hall, Ristolainen score in 5-2 defeat
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