The Penguins were on the heels of a difficult loss coming into Buffalo.

It was two days before that the Penguins lost 6-1 to the Lightning. Tristan Jarry was pulled in the first period of that one after allowing four goals on seven shots, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 18 of 20 in relief.

When Mike Sullivan named Jarry as the starter against the Sabres after Thursday's morning skate, he said he was giving Jarry the opportunity to rebound.

"You know, it wasn't his best," Sullivan said. "The reality is, is he's played a lot of really good hockey since he's been back, and he's been a big part of some of the success that we've enjoyed here over the last couple of weeks. When you look at how the game was played in in Tampa, I don't think our whole was at it's best, so we all have an opportunity to respond to that tonight. He's no different."

The team didn't respond well in Buffalo, and Jarry was no different in the 7-3 loss to the Sabres. Jarry allowed goals on each of the two shots faced in the game, and then allowed two more in the second before he was pulled after allowing four goals on 12 shots. Nedeljkovic stopped 15 of 18 in relief.

It's games like this one where some people inexplicably point and say things like, "See, it isn't the goaltending." Reality: Yeah, the team in front of the goaltender hasn't been much help for most of the season. But the goaltending has also been subpar. It's both. 

That was the case in this one game, too. The Penguins could have done a better job at clearing the net-front. Some of the scoring chances were preventable and stemmed from mistakes. But they could've gotten more out of their goaltenders, too. Both had instances of just getting beat clean.

• Boko Imama missed this game with an upper-body injury, leaving the Penguins with 11 forwards. It'd be reasonable to assume his unavailability was something that was decided relatively late, because had the Penguins known Imama would be unavailable early enough a 12th forward could have been recalled from Wilkes-Barre, less than a five-hour drive away. 

• Ryan Shea returned to the lineup after being sidelined with a finger injury and was a minus-2 in 11:55. Vladislav Kolyachonok was out on the ice late for extra work in the morning, suggesting that he'd be a scratch for the game. But with Imama out, the Penguins just dressed seven defensemen.

• Sidney Crosby is on a nine-game point streak, netting seven goals and seven assists in that span. The streak is the second-longest in franchise history for a player at least 37 years old. The longest such streak was Mario Lemieux's 11-game streak in the 2002-03 season.

• Kevin Hayes led in shots with six, and tied Connor Dewar and Rickard Rakell for the lead in hits with four.

• Blake Lizotte went 4-0 in draws.

• Lizotte was credited with the Penguins' second goal when Rasmus Dahlin attempted to clear a rebound from the crease but accidentally kicked it in. It was Lizotte's 10th goal of the year, one shy of his career high set in 2022-23. He played 81 games that year, and this year he's only played 54 due to injury after taking a puck to the head on two separate occasions early this season.

• Art Ross race update: This game came exactly a month since Ryan Graves got his first point of the season, 43 games in. He joked to me after that one that "maybe the floodgates will open" for him offensively. After picking up an assist on Hayes' goal tonight, Graves has four points (one goal, three assists) in his last 11 games. It's officially a flood watch. 

• The two ex-Penguins on the Sabres weren't available -- Jason Zucker missed the game for family reasons, and Sam Lafferty due to injury. Lafferty was down by the Penguins' locker room after the game, presumably to catch up with former teammates. I only saw him chatting it up with director of security Ed Joyner.