Game 31: When the abyss stares back

The Buffalo Sabres dropped their 10th straight game in a 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the effects of losing are multiplying.

TORONTO — Twice in Sunday afternoon’s game, the Buffalo Sabres held a two-goal lead on the Toronto Maple Leafs and yet, in the end, they came away from it with a 5-3 loss that extended their winless streak to 10 games going 0-7-3 in that time.

At 2-0 and 3-1, the Sabres played with confidence, speed and skill. Jack Quinn scored twice on his return to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch for the past five games. The normally happy-go-lucky Quinn was downright pissed off about being out of the lineup when he spoke with media ahead of the three-game road trip. After all, if you’re being scratched from a lineup that’s not getting wins, it’s a good reason to take it a bit more personally.

And yet, on Sunday he was one of the handful of bright spots in a game that started out well and ended with a losing streak that’s reached double-digits and has left everyone frustrated, exasperated, and dumbfounded that the team is in this position.

“It's pretty shitty, honestly,” Alex Tuch said. “Losing 10 in a row there's no good feelings. Just got to work.”

Organizationally speaking, a losing streak this long is familiar, particularly over the past 10 years or so. This streak is the team’s longest since they dropped 18 consecutive games in the COVID-19 shortened 2020-2021 season in which coach Ralph Krueger was fired in the middle of it and replaced by Don Granato.

In reality, the Sabres are an average team that’s stuck in a rut that’s more like a trench. When you’re down that low, things are dark, and as this team heads to Montréal for a Tuesday game that could end with the team at rock bottom in the Eastern Conference standings, this is a group that collectively needs a thunderous jolt to get out of it.

“I'm almost lost for words, obviously,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “It's on me to solve this. This is the toughest (thing to) solve I've been around. It is on me to get these guys in the right place to win a hockey game and nobody else, just me.”

More ahead about yet another loss and how we can cite Friedrich Nietzsche lines to apply to how things are going.