The magic ran out for Buffalo Sabres goaltender Michael Houser on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. The goaltender's family was in attendance to watch him live in the National Hockey League for the first time, but the Pittsburgh Penguins spoiled the night with an 8-4 win.
The Sabres provided the goalie no help defensively, while keeping things interesting up to the beginning of the third period.
With the loss, the Sabres have officially clinched last place in the NHL standings for a fourth time in eight seasons.
Let's take a look at Thursday's three observations from the game:
1.) Houser story slammed shut by the Penguins
Jeff Skinner said in during Thursday's postgame: The Sabres provided Michael Houser no help.
He's half right.
The Sabres were trading the Penguins goal-for-goal closer to the start of the game, but the game got out of hand after the Penguins pulled ahead 4-3 in the second period.
Of the goals Houser let in, it was the go-ahead goal to make it 4-3 that he'll want back the most. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby won a faceoff back to Kris Letang, who passed it to Brian Dumoulin across the blue line. Dumoulin fired a shot that cleanly beat Houser from the point.
59 seconds later, Penguins forward Jared McCann would pop in, what would end up being, the game-winning goal.
Houser's two games in Buffalo against the New York Islanders were a real nice story, but on Thursday night, he faced a team that brings a great deal more firepower, and the Sabres couldn't keep up.
2.) Caggiula's two goals keep the Sabres in it
The Sabres didn't pick up Drake Caggiula to bring the offensive firepower, but that's what he contributed on Thursday night.
Caggiula opened up the scoring early, accepting a pass in the neutral zone before skating the puck in along the left wall before firing a clean shot past Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. It would be the only time the Sabres would hold a lead in the game.
Caggiula would strike again in the second period, scoring just 37 seconds after Jeff Carter scored his third goal of the game. Colin Miller skated with some space in the Penguins zone before finding an open Caggiula in the slot. Evgeni Malkin made the perfect defensive play to disrupt Caggiula's initial shot, but Caggiula was able to collect himself and take the second shot to tie things up at 3-3.
3.) Skinner re-appears with a goal in an otherwise lost season
Sabres forward Jeff Skinner found himself on the scoresheet with a power play goal on Thursday, a third period tally that didn't mean much by the time he got on the board to make things 7-4 Penguins.
Skinner was not really a favorite of previous Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger, but he's hasn't exactly gotten better with Don Granato at the helm, either. He had only a goal and an assist playing mostly fourth line minutes in 25 games under Krueger.
Since Krueger's dismissal on March 17, Skinner has found the scoresheet a bit more, but not as much as Granato would like from a player who scored 40 goals a couple seasons ago, scoring just six goals and 10 points in 26 games. During that time, he's gotten a lot more ice time, mainly with Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson.
Granato most recently demoted Skinner from his line, benching him for most of the third period against the Islanders on Monday night and opting for Anders Bjork on that line instead. He did see some power play time on Thursday night, which resulted in the goal he scored. It was his first power play goal since the 2018-19 season.
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Just one more game remains for the Sabres in the 2020-21 season. They'll take on the Penguins once again at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh in their regular season finale.
We'll get things started at 2 p.m. ET with the Paul William Beltz Pregame Show with Brian Koziol. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 3 p.m. ET on the radio flagship of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.