"We earned that lead going into the third," Reinhart said. "There's a reason why we have it. We're playing against probably the best team in the world the last few years. We play with the mindset that we're going to go take it to them, and we play with the lead. We lose it, and we sit back too much. The more opportunities you give that team, they're going to score more times than not."
Sabres coach Phil Housley said he saw a dip in his team's play without the puck in the third period as well.
"The bottom line is we put ourselves in position to win a hockey game, going into the third period with a one goal lead," Housley said. "We've got to be able to shut teams down. Good teams, they're going to create, but we've got to rely on our play without the puck and have urgency to protect the lead and then try to take advantage of mistakes the other team makes, which we came close to."
After Kessel tied the game for the Penguins, on a one-time goal made possible by a feed from Evegni Malkin that seemed to see its way through multiple sticks as it glided across the Buffalo net, it took just 16 seconds into the overtime period for Sheary to score the winner.
Eichel explained that it was a failed switch on his behalf that left Sheary open to score on a feed from Crosby, who was stationed behind the net. Kane went down low to pick up Crosby, and Eichel was still looking for his man when Crosby delivered the pass.
"I think it was just a switch, and I didn't pick up Sheary quick enough. That's on me," Eichel said. "He made a good play. He spun off pretty quickly and made a nice pass there. I wasn't expecting it. I was trying to find my way to the front of the net."
Housley said he liked a lot of what his team was able to accomplish in the game, and for good reason. After scoring just one goal in three of their last four games, they created several chances on the rush and found the back of the net four times. Two of their goals came on the power play, giving them four in three games.
It also makes it two games in a row in which the Sabres have felt they played well enough to win, only to come away with one point to show for it.
"Were not going to give up," Lehner said. "We know what spot we're in but we also know [if we] win one, two, three, all of sudden we climb back to .500. You never know. You have to take lessons out of this."