20200302 Sharpen Up

The Buffalo Sabres are set to return to the ice today. We'll have full coverage of practice here on Sabres.com.
Saturday, the dropped a 5-2 decision to the Arizona Coyotes after holding a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Marcus Johansson and Jeff Skinner. Jonas Johansson made 26 saves in the first road start of his career.
The team will practice in Winnipeg today. They'll take on the Jets tomorrow night at MTS Centre. Faceoff is at 8 p.m. with the Buick Game Night pregame show starting at 7:30 on MSG.
Here's what you need to know.

A look back at Saturday night

BUF Recap: Johansson, Skinner score in 5-2 loss

From the Postgame Report…
Marcus Johansson and Jeff Skinner scored goals to give the Buffalo Sabres an early lead, but a lopsided second period changed momentum in what ended as a 5-2 victory for the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Saturday.
The Coyotes surged ahead with three goals to open the second period, the last of which was scored at the 7:30 mark. The stretch was compounded by the loss of forward Victor Olofsson, who left the game with a lower-body injury and did not return.
"It's disappointing," Johansson said. "I mean, they're a skilled team. They scored one and we kind of stopped playing instead of settling things down. It kind of snowballed and they got three. I mean, you're not going to play a perfect game. It's OK for them to score one. We just got to try to settle down and get back to our game."
Sabres coach Ralph Krueger spoke prior to the game about the danger of the Coyotes' rush offense, which he felt they were able to suppress for most of the first period through careful puck management and commitment to their defensive game.

POSTGAME: Eichel

POSTGAME: Krueger

The Coyotes did, however, string together some strong shifts late in the period which Krueger thought bled into the second.
"Going into the second period we just gave up the coverage that had made us strong in the first," Krueger said. "One of the things that started the game well was we didn't spend a lot of time in our end and we just got trapped.
"They score off a coverage error in the first one and it unraveled. There was some fatigue or something that showed up in the minds because we just lost our game for about five, six minutes there and it was hard to get it back."

POSTGAME: Johansson

The Sabres have dropped the first three games of their four-game Western Conference road trip. Krueger acknowledged the disappointment for a group that traveled out west desperate for points in the standings but stressed the need to stay the course moving forward.
"Every game is different at this time of year and we need to continue to work at learning how to play this time of year," he said. "We feel pain right now. There's nothing I can say that's going to make this pretty. But we definitely will stay on the growth path that we are on."
Click here to read the full recap.

Sabres Hall of Fame Profile

Let's look back at Jerry Korab's career with the Sabres:

Sabres Hall of Fame Profile: Jerry Korab