‘”The guys battled,” said Sabres assistant Matt Ellis, who served as coach with Don Granato in COVID-19 protocol. “The battle and the compete was there. The execution at times, you said it, it was definitely sloppy. It took us a little while to get into the game and even at that point just finding a true rhythm to the game. … Tonight it felt a little bit off, but the battle level was there, the compete was certainly there.”‘