Game 27: The absence of execution

The Sabres completed a difficult day-and-a-half with a poorly played 5-2 loss to Utah that extended their winless streak to six games.

BUFFALO — The past 36 or so hours for the Buffalo Sabres have been pretty rough and after dropping a listless 5-2 game against Utah Hockey Club in which they were ahead 1-0 after the first period and didn’t score again until there was 2:20 left to go in the game, we’re left with the feeling that there is a lot of soul-searching to happen.

It’s the sixth straight loss for the Sabres and unlike the losses to Minnesota, Vancouver and Winnipeg during this streak, this loss better resembled ones they had against Colorado and the New York Islanders. There were countless basic mistakes, numerous times which rushes to the offensive zone went offside, another miserable second period performance, and in the end a sixth consecutive defeat.

After general manager Kevyn Adams’ press conference that went sideways on Friday, the team’s performance on Saturday did nothing to calm a fan base that’s just about sick of everything.

“I think you can guess how I’m feeling,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “My job is to get them out of it. That’s my job. That’s on me, to get them out of it, to stay with the process. Don’t deviate. Even just that small play, don’t go offside.

“I mean, this is mentally one of the weakest games I’ve seen, where you go offside that number of times. You don’t execute the small plays. So, if you look at the execution on two of their goals, we could have got it out of our zone. Getting it out of our zone has been a big deal. We’ve talked about it, get it out of your zone. We turned two pucks over on two goals that it’s on our tape, and it results in a goal. So, the execution part and us executing at a high level was not good. Just go back on the ice, practice the simple stuff that leads to the better plays.”

It was yet another game for the Sabres in which their opponent delivered a blow, in this case two goals 24 seconds apart early in the second period, that deeply rattled them to the point where mounting even a one-goal comeback would’ve been a titanic accomplishment. It was ugly and fans made it known it’s not up to snuff from anyone. Players were booed off the ice after the second period and at the end of the game. They called for Adams’ firing and some even questioned where owner Terry Pegula was.

It was a throwback to a different darker era of recent times and that much is not good for anyone. After six straight losses and a tumble down the standings, there aren’t many levers left to pull to fix what ails this group.

“I think we’ve actually, in that stretch, played some really good hockey,” Sabres forward Jason Zucker said. “Tonight wasn’t one of those games. I think we’ve played a couple of really good games that we lost, and it seems we get away from that game following it for whatever reason. I’m not thinking of all of them, but I think last game (Winnipeg) we played well, Minnesota we played well and we lose, but we can’t be about moral victories and playing well and being OK playing well and losing. We’re not playing well at all and we’re definitely not playing consistent enough and that’s on us in this room. We’ve got to fix it and, yeah, we will.”

More ahead from another head-shaking loss on home ice.