Tonight could have been seen as the Buffalo Sabre’s swan song. Coming off two straight games of dominance Buffalo looked to make it three wins in a row against the Ottawa Senators.

The Sabres had everything to play for tonight. Sitting in 10th place in the eastern conference standings, and every team around them playing an inspired brand of hockey. Buffalo needed to match the intensity of their rivals.

Unfortunately for Buffalo Sabres fans tonight was just another showing of the lack of consistency this team has shown over the past two seasons. The Sabres were out shot, out hit,out classed, and worst of all out scored. As buffalo lost 6-3.  

And guess what Sabres fans this is just another game this season where the Sabres lost a game to a team that they should clearly beat. teams like Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Carolina are all teams that could be considered gimmes for two points.

But Buffalo has failed to capitalize on those opportunities. Here is a list of my reasons why this seems to be a difficult task for this team.

Head coach Lindy Ruff’s insistence on player shuffling on lines is nothing more than a true showing of the discontent he has for his players and their play. But this is not the way you can fix a team or a line.

Not allowing players to try and work through their slumps, and rough patches with the same line mates is going to benefit nobody on those lines.

Undisciplined penalties are another area of concern. Players like Adam Mair with lazy penalties do not help the team going forward. Ruff needs to preach a little more skating and a little less being out of position for his players.

Defense which was strong the last two games fell apart at the seams tonight. Jaro Spacek, Chris Butler, and Craig Rivet all showed tremendous weakness tonight in the drubbing.

Forwards like Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Drew Stafford , and Thomas Vanek need to come together and get the offensive side of the ship corrected. If Buffalo fails in their quest to make the playoffs this season, one will only be able to sit back and look at many of the deficiencies I have listed as the reason Buffalo is watching the playoffs rather than playing in them.