Buffalo Sabres Drop Fifth Straight in Loss to Boston Bruins

What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday the Sabres were on an eight game winning streak and set to take over first place in the Northeast Division with a win over Ottawa. Eight days and five games later the Sabres are nine points behind Ottawa after losing all five of those games. The latest lost came against Boston tonight where the Sabres were outplayed during a 5-4 defeat.

Buffalo made the same mistakes tonight that they have been making during the losing streak; playing from behind, lack of production on the power play, sloppy passing, pathetic team defense, and an unwillingness to play physical hockey in order to create scoring chances. At least tonight the Sabres put some shots on net and made a game of it. Buffalo actually out shot Boston 40-39 but it was not enough as Thomas stood tall in net for Boston. Ryan Miller looked great in net for the Sabres at times but five goals are five goals no matter how good you look making the other 34 saves. Miller was left high and dry by his teammates on three or four of the goals but he’s the one getting paid to stop the rubber from crossing the goal line and he didn’t do it again tonight.

Statistically speaking, the Sabres biggest problem over the past five games has been the power play. A week ago the Sabres had one of the top three power play units in the league. Since then they are 1-for-30 on the power play, including tonight’s 0-for-6.

I’ll have a lot more to add tomorrow once I break down the game film and review the highlights (not enough) and lowlights (too many) but unfortunately I have to cut it short tonight. Check back to BfloBlog tomorrow afternoon for the full game recap.