Losers of seven of their last eight, 10 of their last 12, and 13 of their last 16; could it possibly get any worse for the Buffalo Sabres? They have now lost 11 consecutive games on the road and have been outscored 19-5 through four games thus far on this seven game road trip. This road trip has seen the team take their play to a new low. A low that, in the last decade, can only be rivaled by the 2002-2003 team that finished fourth worst in the entire NHL. Coincidentally, this year's team has managed to match the 2002-2003 team's -29 goal differential with two and a half months left to play still. Speaking of this -29 goal differential, that is good enough for fourth worst in the entire league currently.
Moving on to last night's game, the Sabres lost a 4-1 decision to the Jets at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. Those searching for a turnaround last night were met with a nice smack of reality very quickly as the team continued their uninspiring play and was hemmed in their own zone for most of the first period, resulting in 19 shots for the Jets. Ryan Miller played extremely well to keep the team in the game in the first period, including a dandy of a save on Tanner Glass early in the first. The team lacked the push back required to battle back in the game and despite playing marginally better for the remainder of the game, a pair of third period goals iced the 4-1 victory for the Jets.
The highlights of the game for Buffalo were Miller's aforementioned save on Tanner Glass and Cody McCormick's spirited first period bout with Mark Stuart. Stuart laid a couple of solid hits on rookie Luke Adam in the Adam's first two shifts of the game which sparked McCormick to go right after Stuart immediately upon the shift change to get McCormick on the ice.
The team was underperforming a month or so ago but the effort was there, albeit inconsistent effort. With this recent stretch in the past five games, they have turned a corner where they're not even competitive on most nights. The passing is horrendous, finishing a check has become a rare occurrence, frequent mental mistakes, lack of puck support, and very few make an attempt to block shots anymore. There are a few who still give it their all every night but typically it's the players that are not counted on to make an impact on the game, the guys who have a marginal impact even when leaving their heart out on the ice.
Derek Roy exhibited a perfect example of a passive effort to block shots on Tobias Enstrom's goal in last night's game. Rather than get out to the shooter to cut down the angle and dropping to the ice to block the shot, Roy casually coasted to the hash marks (a good 20 feet from the shooter) and stood there so he could place a perfect screen on Ryan Miller while having very little chance of actually blocking the shot. This was a microcosm of Buffalo's last five games. The team appears to be simply going through the motions but not giving the effort to be really effective at anything they do.
The team is 23rd in the overall standings. They haven't won consecutive games since November 11th. They haven't won a road game since December 3rd. They're currently ranked 25th in the league in goals for and 26th in goals against. They only have two players on pace for 20 goals. Their former Vezina winning goaltender currently boasts the 40th best save percentage in the league to go along with his 43rd ranked goals against average. It's safe to say the team is a complete and utter mess right now.
It does not get any better as the team heads to St. Louis to take on the Blues on Saturday night. Buffalo has only scored 11 goals in their last eight games while St. Louis has four shutouts in their last eight games. It's likely that the team will boost their road losing streak to a full dozen on Saturday night in St. Louis.
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