Sabres unhappy with lack of work in loss to Stars

From another slow start to a string of four unanswered goals to end the game, the Buffalo Sabres were left searching for answers following a 7-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at KeyBank Center on Saturday afternoon.
According to some of their veteran leaders, they need look no further than to the performance of their opponent. Quite simply, they said, the Sabres were outworked by the Stars.
"If anything, I think we should take example of the way they compete, the way they play, the way they don't give up much," Jason Pominville said. "A typical example of a [Ken] Hitchcock team, playing in arguably the toughest division in the league.

"The way they play is impeccable. They were tough. They held onto pucks and made us look bad and outcompeted us, and that's the bottom line. If you want to win you've got to compete, and they outworked us."
Facing a Dallas team that came into the afternoon with a 12-1-1 record when leading after one period, the Sabres knew their start would be imperative. When the two teams met in Dallas back in November, the Stars scored four times in the first period on their way to a 5-1 win.
It was a similar story on Saturday. The Sabres fell behind 10-0 in the shot column to begin the game and entered the first intermission trailing 2-0. Remi Elie opened the scoring for Dallas on a rebound off the rush and Mattias Janmark added a second goal on a power play with 5:51 left in the period.
Janmark scored again after 6:25 had passed in the second, and things began to snowball from there.
"We give up the third one, and then we sort of deflated and you could see it," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Every puck battle, every competitive situation, they won. They had a big push and we didn't respond the right way. That's why it became 7-1."

One reccurring issue for the Sabres as of late has been their tendency to allow opponents to score on shifts following goals of their own. That's what lost them their game in New York on Thursday, when Pavel Buchnevich scored the winning goal for the Rangers just 1:03 after the Sabres had tied the game.
The problem arose again after a power-play goal from Sam Reinhart, which cut the deficit to 3-1 with 11:06 still left to play in the second period. Dallas responded with a goal from Jamie Benn just 38 seconds later, chasing Robin Lehner after he allowed four goals on 19 shots.
Dallas added two more goals, from Esa Lindell and Radek Faksa, ahead of the second intermission. Tyler Pitlick capped the scoring with 12:36 remaining in the third.
"That's a good hockey team with some high-end players," defenseman Josh Gorges said. "What did they do all night? They just created turnovers, threw the puck in behind us and went to work. Heavy on the forecheck, heavy in the neutral zone, heavy in their end. They just battle and compete.
"That's what it takes to win in this league. If you're not ready to have that all-out effort, compete, battle, you're not going to win many hockey games."
It was only 11 days ago that the Sabres last allowed seven goals in front of their home fans, a 7-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Since then, they'd responded with strong efforts in a win over Columbus and even in their loss to New York. That they've shown they're capable of such efforts only made the lack of work on Saturday more confounding.
"I mean, that's a million-dollar question," alternate captain Kyle Okposo said. "We've had stretches where we have but today we didn't. I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense. I'm kind of at a loss for words right now."
"Maybe we get a little too ahead of ourselves, we start feeling a little too comfortable," Gorges added. "What do we have to feel comfortable about? In no way should we come to the rink any day - game day or practice day - and feel comfortable. Because we're not in that position."
The Sabres will have plenty more chances to make it up to the home crowd. They head on the road for a three-game swing in Western Canada this week, then play nine of 16 games at home in February.
Until then, if there's one certainty, it's that there will be no rest on Sunday.
"Give Dallas credit, they came to work and we didn't," Housley said. "If we're not going to compete in our game in front of our own fans, which is very disappointing and quite embarrassing, we're going to compete tomorrow in practice."

Eichel extends his streak

Jack Eichel earned the primary assist on Reinhart's power-play goal to extend his point streak to five games. Eichel ripped a shot from the left circle that rung the post, and Reinhart was in position to clean up the rebound off his back hand.

Eichel now has 20 points (10+10) in his last 14 games.

100 for Risto

Rasmus Ristolainen received the secondary assist on Reinhart's goal, marking the 100th assist of his career. The defenseman now has nine points (3+6) in his last nine games.

Up next

The Sabres will head to Western Canada for a three-game road trip that begins in Calgary on Monday night. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 8:30 p.m. with GMC Gamenight, or you can listen to the game live on WGR 550. Puck drop is scheduled for just after 9.