BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Already buried at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, the Sabres slid further into the abyss in losing to their last-place counterparts from the West.
Buffalo’s hopeless stretch continued with a fourth consecutive loss, 6-2 against the NHL’s last-place San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center that elicited booing and a smattering of calls to fire general manager Kevyn Adams from fans in the upper sections.
“Too many passengers tonight,” dejected coach Lindy Ruff said. “They won the compete, they won the puck-play game. Our puck play was awful. Just too many guys took the night off.”
Tage Thompson scored his 30th of the season, JJ Peterka had a goal and assist, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves in one of the most lackluster efforts of this Buffalo hockey season.
Thompson’s slap shot got the Sabres within a goal early in the third period, but celebrated rookie Macklin Celebrini responded for the Sharks just over a minute later.
“It was plain and simple, they outworked us, and we lost too many puck battles,” Thompson said. “Just going into one on ones too casual hoping we were going to win them instead of going down with some intensity.”
Peterka’s tying goal on a power play in the first came after the Sharks went ahead barely a minute into the an opening period in which they out-shot the Sabres 11-5.
“You never go into a game thinking that’s how it’s gonna go,” defenseman Bowen Byram said. “It’s embarrassing for all of us.”
Ruff attributed some of the difficulties to the effort the Sabres expended coming back from down three goals in a 4-3 overtime loss at Montreal on Monday night.
“When you look at as well as we skated last night, it looked like there was fatigue in our game,” he said. “You have no legs, you have no hands, then you have no brain after that. We gave up goals on face-off coverage, we gave up goals on just over-backchecking. Our puck play three times led to goals. … Our puck play was pathetic.”
The Sabres start a two-game road trip Thursday in Florida, their last game before the NHL’s trade deadline.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.