It has not been an easy stretch for the Buffalo Sabres. After their 4-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at KeyBank Center on Friday, their record has fallen to 1-8-2 over their last 11 games and, for the first time in franchise history, they have been shut out in three straight games.
Sabres unable to generate any offense in 3rd straight game
"It's just embarrassing. We've got to take more pride in here and we've got to be better - everybody, top to bottom," Sabres alternate captain Kyle Okposo said. "It's just not good enough. The effort's not good enough. We work in practice. We work in practice and then that doesn't translate for some reason. It's just a lack of execution."
Tristan Jarry got the start for Pittsburgh as he fills in Matt Murray, who is out week to week with a lower-body injury that he sustained in the team's last game. He stopped 34 shots to earn the shutout.
"We're playing a backup goaltender. I think we didn't take advantage of that tonight," coach Phil Housley said. "We came close, but you can't give a good team two goals like that to start the game. They're going to lock that in."
Those two goals came quickly in the first period.
The Penguins took the lead 3:23 into the game when Thomas Kuhnhackl converted on a penalty shot, roofing the puck over Robin Lehner's glove. He earned the opportunity after blocking a shot by Victor Antipin at the Pittsburgh blue line. He skated in on a breakaway and the refs determined that Antipin interfered with Kuhnhackl enough to award the Penguins a penalty shot.
Pittsburgh's lead increased to a pair 3:15 later when Sidney Crosby intercepted a Rasmus Ristolainen pass intended for Jake McCabe in front of the Sabres net. Crosby fired it past Lehner for his 11th goal of the season. At that point, the Penguins were already outshooting Buffalo 7-1.
"I made a bad play and they scored. It should not happen at this level," Ristolainen said.
Crosby has points in 26 of his last 28 games against the Sabres dating back to Dec. 29, 2007. In that span, he has recorded 14 goals, 32 assists and 41 points. He's now on a four-game at point streak, with three goals and two assists, and has posted at least one point in 19 of 20 trips to Buffalo.
Jake Guentzel made it 3-0 with 1:55 left in the first when he converted on a wraparound.
With 39.6 seconds left in the second period, Carl Hagelin one-timed a shot in to make 4-0.
Buffalo's last goal came in the third period of their 3-1 win over Edmonton on Nov. 24. Since then, they've gone 0-3-0 and have been outscored 10-0.
"The only way this is going to change is within that group in the room. They've got to make a choice because obviously we'd like to provide more cheering for our fans. They come and support us and we've got to do a better job here at home," Housley said.
Buffalo's power play went 0-for-4 on the night and was outshot 3-1 while on the man advantage.
"I don't think there was one thing that worked," Ristolainen said. "Starting from myself, I'm the puck carrier. I have a big responsibility there to find the right guy and that's where it started tonight. I didn't make the plays."
The Sabres had the No. 1 power play in the NHL last year, but after Friday's game, they're ranked 30th, scoring on only 12.2 percent of their chances.
"It's just not good enough. We get some opportunities on the power play - just momentum killers," Okposo said. "Those are ones that are unacceptable and that's on us as a power play and me to make some plays. That's part of my job. We've got to score on the power play and our power play, I thought, let us down tonight. We made some mistakes in the first and they capitalized but we've got to play better."
The game marked the start of the 11th home-and-home series between the Sabres and Penguins, with the Sabres now going 7-2-2 (with one tie) in the home games. Buffalo is 3-3-4 (with four ties) in the road games.
They'll meet again Saturday night in Pittsburgh. Faceoff is slated for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. The GMC Game Night pregame show kicks off at 6:30 on MSG. We'll have lineup news for you throughout the day here on Sabres.com.
"We're going to continue to make changes as best we can and we're going to prepare our team to get them ready for tomorrow. But like I said, there's a group of guys in that room that have to make a choice to turn it around," Housley said.
"It's not going to be easy. This is probably going to be one of the [most difficult] mentally tough things they're going to have to deal with in their careers. Hopefully we'll look back at this stretch and we can learn from it. But right now, we're in the thick of it and there's no easy way out. It's about digging in and having a lot of pride and showing some emotion."
