Sabres Slammed By Canadiens, Now Winless In 11

The Buffalo Sabres were in a good place on November 23rd. Just prior to US Thanksgiving, the Sabres were coming off a three-game sweep of the California road swing, they were in third place in the Atlantic Division with an 11-9-1 record, two points behind the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and five points in back of the first place Toronto Maple Leafs.

A little over three weeks later, Buffalo are 11-17-4, winless in the last 11 games (0-8-3), in last place in the Eastern Conference, and with a 4.1% chance of making the playoffs.

The latest in their precipitous fall was a 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, which came after team owner Terry Pegula to traveled to Montreal give a vote of confidence after blowing a two-goal lead in Toronto on Sunday. That confidence lasted a whole 19 seconds, as former Sabre Joel Armia scored to put Montreal in the lead.

“For some reason, we came out with no spark in our game, and they took it to us,” Sabres winger Alex Tuch said after the game. “The season is not over, I just know that personally I need to be better. You can’t pinpoint it on one game or one play.”

Other than Dylan Cozens' goal that narrowed the Habs lead to 2-1 in the second period, there was not much to be positive about in the contest, as the Sabres appeared to have no composure in the face of adversity, taking careless penalties that further put them in a hole. Montreal scored four straight on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, with Patrik Laine completing a hat trick with a pair of power play goals. Luukkonen was pulled mercifully after allowing six goals on 21 shots in favor of James Reimer.

“It started with a poor puck play inside the offensive zone where we didn’t get it deep, and it goes off a referee’s skate,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. “That first goal, bothered us too much. We were racing here, racing there, then I thought we settled down at about the 10-minute mark, and then we got organized…..The turning point was non-call when (Bowen Byram) goes to the net in a game where they were calling everything, he gets dumped and there’s no call. (That) would have gave us some momentum. They get a couple calls and it’s in the back of our net.”

The Sabres will try to regroup on Thursday after an off day on Wednesday. Team captain Rasmus Dahlin is expected to practice with the club and could return to the lineup when the Maple Leafs come to town on Friday.

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