BUFFALO, N.Y. — After three months of playing like the best team in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres have hit a rut.
The Sabres are winless in their last three games after a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night. This is the team’s longest winless streak since early December, when the Sabres lost three games before a Dec. 9 win that began a 10-game winning streak.
Sabres goalie Alex Lyon has said often this season that adversity is always lingering, even during the best of seasons. He was part of a Red Wings team last season that went on a late-season losing streak that sank their playoff hopes. And he’s glad the Sabres have another game Saturday against the Seattle Kraken.
“It’s not fun to sit on games like that,” Lyon said. “We’re hitting a bump in the road right now, and we’re going to see what we’re made of here. We need to put our foot on the gas and kind of reset and reassure ourselves. That’s the name of the game. That’s what being successful this time of year is about.”
This game unraveled early for the Sabres. Josh Norris took a high-sticking penalty four minutes into the game, and the Red Wings scored immediately on the ensuing power play. Detroit won the faceoff and got a shot on net. Alex DeBrincat was there to pick up the rebound. A few minutes later, Logan Stanley went to the box for interference, and Lucas Raymond scored on the power play after a failed clearing attempt from Ryan McLeod. To make matters worse, Marco Kasper scored at the end of the first period to put the Red Wings up 3-0 at the first intermission.
The Sabres have spent a lot of time playing with the lead this season. In three straight games, they’ve found themselves chasing. They were able to get the games against the Ducks and Bruins to overtime, but they dug too deep a hole in this game.
“It’s unacceptable,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “They came out really good and scored three early, and it’s hard to come back from that. We need better first periods, that’s for sure.”
The upshot is that the Sabres were much better in the second and third periods. In the second period, they had a 6-0 advantage in high-danger chances and looked like the team that has been rolling for three straight months. But Red Wings goalie John Gibson was good enough to thwart Buffalo’s comeback attempt, and more penalties zapped the Sabres’ momentum in the third period. That was enough for the Red Wings, who played like the more desperate team, to come away with a win.
The Sabres are still in a fine position when it comes to the playoffs. They have a 2-point lead on the Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division, but they are behind them in points percentage. They still have a 6-point lead on the Canadiens, who are third in the division, and a 10-point lead on the Senators, who are ninth in the conference.
While it’s not time for panic, the Sabres do need to treat this streak with the right amount of urgency. Even though it’s close to a lock, the Sabres have not clinched a playoff spot yet. And there’s a lot more to play for than just a spot in the postseason. The Sabres have nine more regular-season games to get their game back in a place where they like it. Because it will be a lot harder to do that once the playoffs start. That starts Saturday against Seattle.
“Tomorrow, it’s going to show what type of team we are,” Dahlin said. “We have to show ourselves that we got to dig ourselves out of this. This is unacceptable.”
Quick hits
1. The Sabres put Conor Timmins in the lineup to stabilize a penalty kill that has been slipping a bit lately. On Wednesday, they got immediate results. But on Friday, the penalty kill cost them early in the game. Discipline may have been the bigger issue for the Sabres in this one, considering they had eight minutes of high-sticking penalties. Still, the Sabres need that unit to be a strength in the postseason, considering the Canadiens, Bruins, Lightning and Senators all have top-11 power plays in the NHL. Regardless of which team the Sabres run into in the playoffs, the penalty kill will be put to the test.
2. There are plenty of reasons why Buffalo has been winless in the last three games, but it hasn’t helped that the goaltending has cooled off during this stretch. Lyon has allowed 10 goals in his last two starts and has a save percentage of .807. The Sabres have had the best save percentage in the NHL since Dec. 9, but in the last three games, they’ve needed a few more saves. Eventually, Lindy Ruff will have to decide which goalie will start the playoffs. That’s not going to be an easy decision. But whether it’s Lyon or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, this team can’t survive without at least average goaltending.
3. Norris has just 5 points in 13 games in March. During that time, he’s 12th on the team in shots per 60 and 13th on the team in shot attempts per 60. While his defensive metrics have been solid during that stretch, he makes nearly $8 million per year because of his scoring ability. Given all the time he gets on the power play, the Sabres could use more goals out of him.
4. It might be time for the Sabres to tinker with their blue line. Stanley took some costly penalties in this game, and the penalty kill struggled. Michael Kesselring has been out of the lineup since March 10. If this is going to be a legitimate competition for the final spots in the lineup, he should get a look. If the time off has helped his injured ankle, his skating ability would be a welcome addition on that bottom pair.
5. The Sabres sent defenseman Zach Metsa back to the AHL on Thursday afternoon after he had put together a strong stretch of games in their NHL lineup. Ruff explained the decision by saying that Timmins’ return to the lineup made it tough to get Metsa in, and the team wanted him to play games for the next few days since the Sabres won’t be practicing. Ruff said it could be a short-term demotion for Metsa.
6. Noah Östlund missed this game for the Sabres, and Ruff said he’s day to day with an upper-body injury. Östlund participated in the Sabres’ optional morning skate Friday, which was a good sign after he missed practice Thursday.