It takes a lot of agony in a Buffalo sporting event to surprise me after what happened on a certain Monday night at Ralph Wilson Stadium this Fall and Tuesday's 6-3 come-from-ahead loss felt all-too-familiar.
In fact, I think citing that game does a disservice to the Bills, because the Cowboys were, on the whole, a better, more experienced team than Buffalo. The Sabres lack excuses for performances like Tuesday night, an embarassing — we've used that word a few times this year against Canadian teams, eh? — loss to a struggling Ottawa club.
Offensive zone giveaways? Check.
Short-handed goals? Check.
Getting bossed around while on the power play? Check.
Ordinary-at-best goaltending? Check.
The best part? You can say the same for more than a handful of games this year. The Phoenix loss in January, the Montreal shellacking in February and the 3-2 shoot-out loss to the Rangers just 15 days ago. All equally embarassing.
The post-game sound from the locker room was naive. There's a difference between sticking up for your teammates and bordering on foolish, and the boys straddled that line before falling into the latter Tuesday. Toni Lydman said he believed the team didn't have a problem responding to adversity. Yikes. Tough words to hear from a normally straight-forward player.
Perhaps the worst was hearing what Ryan Miller had to say. There were some tough goals against the normally-solid goaltender, who is going through a difficult stretch for the Sabres, but his repeated sentiment about odd-man rushes and mistakes in front of him are tough to take when the NHL has spent the month of March sniping on him, high-glove side and five-hole (And please, enough with the fatigue comments. Martin Brodeur is an elite goaltender, and has played 70 or more games in 11 of 12 seasons since the 1994-95 campaign. Roberto Luongo's headed for his fourth-straight campaign over 70. Henrik Lundqvist his second).
Friday's 4-1 loss to Toronto was one thing — one loss four in games after a strong stretch against lesser opponents — but Tuesday was another thing, and you can chalk it up with the bottom moments in HSBC Arena. There comes a time for accountability, and it's now. The Sabres need to win out and get help to make the playoffs.
Don't stop believing? Right. There are some good guys in that locker room, and I dare them to prove me wrong.
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