BUFFALO, N.Y. -- In hindsight, it was unrealistic to expect the Penguins to go an undefeated 8-0 against any one team this season.
Even the Sabres.
A day after beating Buffalo a fifth consecutive time and officially eliminating the Sabres from playoff contention on Saturday, the Penguins lost to the NHL's last-place team, 4-2, Sunday at KeyBank Center.
It didn't take long to materialize, either.
Rookie forward Arttu Ruotsalainen opened the scoring for Buffalo 26 seconds into the game after getting a quick 2-on-1 with Dylan Cozens:
Sam Reinhart scored twice -- an early second-period goal off of a cross-ice pass from Victor Olofsson and a power play goal in the third -- to put the Penguins in a 3-0 hole with not much time to crawl out of it.
Jason Zucker broke Dustin Tokarski's shutout with just under 10 minutes remaining off of a faceoff play in which Jeff Carter earned his first point as a Penguin:
Buffalo regained the three-goal lead with Rasmus Asplund's empty-netter in the final two minutes. Teddy Blueger got one back in the final minute, but it was too little, too late:
"You have to give them credit," Mike Sullivan said of the Sabres. "They played hard and they played well. The goals they got were good goals from some good players."
"I think they just outworked us harder today," John Marino said of what the Sabres did differently in Sunday's game compared to Saturday's. "We got off to a flat start, they got some chances early, that's just how the game went in the beginning. It was too much to come back from."
"They were good," Blueger said of the Sabres today. "They came out and played hard. They got speed up and down their lineup, they got some skilled players. They were on their game. Their goalie played well. But I think at the end of the day, we have to control what we can. I don't think we did a great job of that tonight."
It wasn't that the Penguins didn't have opportunities. They attempted more shots and recorded more shots on goal than the Sabres in each of the first two periods, then matched the Sabres in both categories in the third. Of their 61 total attempted shots, 14 went wide or over the net.
"I thought we had some good chances," Zucker said. "I don't think it was anything about work ethic. We weren't executing."
Other golden opportunities didn't even produce an attempted shot, like Zucker's two-on-one with Carter in the second period when Zucker opted to pass instead of shoot:
"Yeah, that was a terrible play," Zucker said.
The blown opportunities in the game blew an opportunity for the Penguins to solidify their position in the East Division standings
The Penguins dropped back to third place after Islanders later beat the Flyers in overtime. Entering the game the Penguins had the chance to close the gap on the Capitals for first place after the Capitals lost to the Bruins earlier in the day. A win would have put the Penguins one point behind the Capitals with a game in hand. Now, they're a point out of second place again.
"Maybe a little cause for concern in the sense that this time of year we can't afford to come out flat like that," Blueger said. "We were second to a lot of loose pucks, losing a lot of puck battles. I think that cost us. In the sense that this time of year with about 10 games left and the playoff race what it is, we just need to come out with more energy."
With just under three weeks remaining in the regular season, the hope is that this loss to the team in the league's basement will prove to be a learning experience and isn't a symptom of a larger issue that will come back to bite the Penguins in the home stretch of the season.
"I don't think there's too much concern," Marino said after the game. "They came out and battled harder than us. We'll take it and we'll learn from it and move forward."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Penguins' penalty-kill has now allowed eight goals in the past eight games.
"It's something you try to work on all year," Marino said. "We've gone through stretches where we've obviously been pretty good, and obviously haven't been that good. Definitely something we want to improve on."
"It's something that we felt like for a large part throughout the second half (of the season) was improving and heading in the right direction," Blueger said of the PK. "We just have to stay on it. As soon as we loosen up a little or lose a little bit of concentration against any team in this league, you're going to get punished."
• Ruotsalainen's opening goal ended Casey DeSmith's three-game shutout streak against the Sabres, which included two shutouts this season.
• In the Penguins' past 11 meetings with the Sabres, the team that scored first won.
• Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, their second-round pick in 2018, made his NHL debut in the game. He's the son of Kjell Samuelsson, a member of the Penguins' 1992 championship team.
• The Penguins activated Mark Friedman off of injured reserve before the game. Friedman was injured on March 4 against the Flyers in his second game since being claimed off waivers.
• Anthony Angello was re-assigned to the taxi squad after the game.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at KeyBank Center:
1. Sam Reinhart, Sabres
2. Dustin Tokarski, Sabres
3. Rasmus Dahlin, Sabres
THE INJURIES
• Forward Evgeni Malkin is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained on March 16. He's resumed skating and is expected to resume before the end of the regular seasons.
• Forward Kasperi Kapanen is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained March 24. He's resumed skating on his own.
• Forward Brandon Tanev is week-to-week with an upper-body injury sustained on April 3. He's not expected to return before the end of the regular season.
• Forward Freddy Gaudreau is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained on April 11.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Jason Zucker
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Evan Rodrigues
Radim Zohorna-Mark Jankowski-Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Don Granato's Sabres::
Jeff Skinner-Sam Reinhart-Victor Olofsson
Rasmus Asplund-Casey Mittelstadt-Tage Thompson
Anders Bjork-Dylan Cozens-Arttu Ruotsalainen
Tobias Rieder-Cody Eakin-Riley Sheahan
Mattias Samuelsson-Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin-Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson-Colin Miller
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins have a scheduled day off Monday. They'll host the Devils for a three-game series on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
THE CONTENT
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