The Buffalo Sabres fell to second-last in the Eastern Conference Thursday night, ahead of only the New York Islanders, who have a game in hand of Buffalo. The 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay marked the fifth time in their last six games that the Sabres failed to score two goals and they haven’t scored three since Oct. 30.
The struggle is real and after Thursday’s loss, a frustrated Evander Kane sounded off about the anemic offence and challenged his teammates — and himself — to be better.
“It must be a joke floating around the league: You score two goals against the Buffalo Sabres and you’re going to win the hockey game,” Kane said.
“We’ve got to have more guys that want to be a difference maker, want to have the puck on their stick. We’ve got to be harder to play against.”
The Sabres definitely had their chances against the Lightning, putting 33 shots on goal and, with the score 1-0 Tampa at the time, a wide open net was suddenly taken away from Kyle Okposo by an amazing save from Ben Bishop.
“It stings. It’s a 1-0 game at that point,” Okposo said after the game. “I just thought he was completely out of it and wanted to make sure. I settled it for a half-second, shot it and he made a heck of a save.”
Much has been made of the Vancouver Canucks’ struggles on offence this season, but the Sabres are now the lowest-scoring team in the league averaging just 1.82 goals per game. Their next three games are at home against Pittsburgh, Calgary and Detroit — all teams in the bottom half of the league in goals-against per game.
The Sabres are dying to get Jack Eichel back into the lineup.
