Sharpen Up: All the Sabres news you need to know on February 29, 2020

The Sabres will try to shake off last night's loss to the Vegas Golden Knights when they take on the Arizona Coyotes tonight in Glendale.
Catch the Buick Game Night pregame show live from Gila River Arena at 7:30 p.m. on MSG. The opening faceoff is set for 8 on MSG and WGR 550.
Here's what you need to know.

Tonight's matchup

From @SabresPR's Game Notes…

• Brandon Montour has recorded five points (2+3) in the Sabres' last five games.
• Jack Eichel has totaled 12 points (4+8) in nine career games against Arizona, including at least a point in each of his four road games (2+4).
• Jeff Skinner has totaled 10 points (5+5) in his last eight games against the Coyotes, including points in each of the last four (5+3).

About last night

Buffalo held an early lead, but Vegas came back strong to score the next four goals in a 4-2 loss. The Sabres are now 0-2-0 on their four-game road trip, which will conclude on Tuesday in Winnipeg.
From the Postgame Report…
Jake McCabe acknowledged the similarities between two tough-to-swallow losses.
Just as they had Wednesday in Colorado, the Buffalo Sabres went into T-Mobile Arena on Friday and went toe-to-toe with the Vegas Golden Knights for 40 minutes. And, as was the case two nights prior, the difference came down to a handful of plays in the third.
This time, it was a pair of goals from William Karlsson and Reilly Smith scored 2:19 apart in the final period that broke a 1-1 tie and propelled the Golden Knights to a 4-2 victory.
"It's tough," McCabe said. "It's real tough. We've got a lot of fight in this room. We played a good game tonight up until the third period, [then] we had a couple breakdowns. But we went into two tough buildings in a tie game and there's nothing more you can ask for on the road especially. That's a good situation to be in. We just had a tough time finding the back of the net."

Dominik Kahun scored on the second shift of his debut to put the Sabres on the board 2:16 into the contest. Their second goal wouldn't come until Jeff Skinner buried a backhand shot with 11.8 seconds remaining, at which point Vegas had already padded its lead with an empty-net goal from Smith.
What transpired in between was a tightly contested game between a Sabres team working desperately to make up ground in the standings and a Golden Knights squad that entered the night having won seven straight games, including a shutout of Edmonton two nights prior.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't find one early in the game," Skinner said. "It would have been nice to get one there and sort of change the momentum at some point. But hopefully we can build off that because we've got some good chances, now we just have to find a way to bear down."

The Sabres have a chance to bounce back quickly. They face another team vying for playoff positioning in the Western Conference when they visit the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
"It's disappointing," Skinner said. "We want to get the win, but we can't dwell on it. … We've got another challenge tomorrow and we've got to be up to the task because we have to pick up points and obviously, we know how big every game is here so we have to move on and focus on tomorrow."
Read the full recap here.

Road Crew Vegas

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Road Crew stop in Vegas last night. Our alumni and broadcasters definitely enjoyed meeting all the Sabres fans who stopped by. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.

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Today in Sabres history

2012:The Sabres and Ducks combine for 106 penalty minutes and Ryan Miller stops 43 shots to earn a shutout in Buffalo's 2-0 win in Anaheim. Miller's 43 saves set a franchise record for most saves in a shutout that now belongs to Carter Hutton (47 saves, Oct. 17, 2019 at Los Angeles).

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