NEW YORK – A year ago Sunday, the Buffalo Sabres were in Boston and they were in complete chaos.
A team tweet wishing owner Terry Pegula a happy 70th birthday was savaged with angry social media responses. The game that afternoon against the Bruins saw a 2-1 lead through two periods turn into a 3-2 defeat – the 17th straight for a franchise seemingly on the road to nowhere.
Equipped with untapped potential and a fiery competitiveness, Cozens has used his position on the ice and in the dressing room to be a catalyst for change in the organization.
Fast forward a year. In Florida with his wife for this week's NFL owners meetings, Pegula has locked down a deal with the state and county for funds for his new $1.4 billion football palace in Orchard Park. Meanwhile, things on the hockey side are a whole lot different in Pegulaville as the owner turned 71 on Sunday.
The Sabres are 7-3-2 in March a year after not winning a single game in that month, and are playing entertaining hockey. And losing is no longer accepted.
Disappointment was the prevailing emotion after Sunday's 5-4 overtime defeat to the New York Rangers, a game lost on defenseman K'Andre Miller's wrist shot at 2:02 of OT. The Sabres battled back from 2-0 and 4-3 deficits to get a point on Jeff Skinner's power-play goal with 6:53 left, but couldn't get the winner.
Buffalo was outshot in the game, 31-17, including 13-2 over the third period and overtime. The Sabres lost it when Tage Thompson's pass up the middle to Rasmus Dahlin was intercepted and Miller netted a wrist shot past Craig Anderson on the ensuing odd-man rush.
Coach Don Granato was as solemn as he's been after a loss all season, fretting over his team's lack of energy during its fifth straight overtime contest, a first for Buffalo since 2010. The Sabres are 3-0-2 in that run.
"We speak a lot about chatter on the bench and chatter on the bench told me they were tired," Granato said. "They battled and they fought it all night long. I'm telling you, they fought themselves all day long, because they just didn't feel themselves."
The Sabres fell behind by two goals in the first four minutes on goals by Frank Vatrano in an 18-second span, but refused to fold like they did on so many nights last season. Instead, Rasmus Asplund, Will Butcher and Kyle Okposo scored to take a 3-2 lead midway through the second period.
"Maybe in some other circumstances, an immature team would kind of pack it in," Skinner said. "I think we did a good job of staying in it and in continuing to press for that next one."
Buffalo fell behind again, 4-3, on Artemi Panarin's goal at 3:52 of the third period before Skinner tied it on a Dahlin feed. The Buffalo power play had been 0 for 14 in the previous five games.
"Our power play recently, we've been getting decent looks, but just haven't been able to get that goal and finish the play off," said Skinner, whose 27th goal tied Thompson for the team lead. "But obviously a big moment in the game there."
The Rangers used the quick strike to take control of Friday's 5-1 victory here over Pittsburgh, grabbing a 3-0 lead in the first 4:16 for their fastest trio of goals from the opening faceoff since 1985.
The Madison Squad Garden sellout crowd of 18,006 was howling and looking for more of the same Sunday but the Sabres calmed the game down, choking the neutral zone and not allowing a shot on goal over the final 10:28 of the first period. They cut the deficit in half when Asplund punched home a beautiful diagonal pass from Mattias Samuelsson with 1:48 left in the frame.
"It says a lot about our group. We're down, 2-0, five minutes into the game and it's a tough building, loud building," Okposo said. "They pushed hard right away. And I thought we just did a really good job of calming down and settling into our game.
"We're starting to figure out how to play every game. And that's something that's a very hard thing to do. I'm not saying that we're there yet because we're not, but we're starting to show some glimpses of it."
Okposo's 16th of the year gave Buffalo its only lead and was a beautiful solo rush as he curled around the defense and pushed the puck through goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
"That's kind of the the old Pee Wee play," Okposo said. "Just drive, drop your shoulder and go to the net and good things happen. Just tried to get there and I don't know how it went in."
Granato isn't a serial line flipper but tried to jolt some quiet offensive players in Friday's shootout loss to Washington, and he said he isn't afraid to try different combinations the rest of the season.
Here are some more observations about the game:
1. In the nets
Anderson and Dustin Tokarski have now both played 22 games this season in goal for Buffalo and have relatively similar numbers except for the won-lost record. Anderson had one of his weakest games of the season, with the Panarin goal coming off a huge rebound, to fall to 12-9-1 with a 3.13 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. Tokarski is 6-9-5, 3.07/.907.
Tokarski has been particularly strong in his last three starts (1-1-1, 1.28/.957) as he has stopped 90 of 94 shots. He's expected to get the start Monday night in Chicago.
2. Top line troubles
The line of Thompson between Skinner and Alex Tuch had perhaps its worst game together. Thompson gave the puck away to lead to Vatrano's second goal, a clean breakaway, in addition to his ill-advised pass in OT. He was minus-3 in the game while Tuch and Skinner, who each had just one shot on goal, were minus-2.
"At times, they were fighting it," Okposo said. "They've been our backbone up front for the last 25 games and when we needed a goal, they provided it. That says a ton about them, says a lot about the way 'Skinny' is playing and they really stuck with it."
3. Covid issues again
Defenseman Colin Miller was entered into Covid-19 protocol, the Sabres announced before the game. He's the second player to enter within the last week, as forward John Hayden had to quarantine in Vancouver before returning to Buffalo. Hayden skated on his own Saturday and Sunday.
With Miller unable to go, the Sabres opted to sit out his defense partner, Mark Pysyk, and bring Butcher and Casey Fitzgerald back into the lineup as a pair because they've skated together as extras for the last week.
4. Next
The Sabres headed to Chicago and will meet the Blackhawks on Monday at 8:30 p.m. in their first visit to United Center since Nov. 17, 2019.
Buffalo is 0-7-3 in its last 10 trips to Chicago with no wins since Jan. 10, 2007 – more than five months before the Hawks made South Buffalo native Patrick Kane the No. 1 overall pick of the NHL draft.
