Anaheim Ducks Bury The Buffalo Sabres

No magical comeback this time.  Instead of building on the excitement of Tuesday's come from behind win over San Jose, the Buffalo Sabres laid a great big egg in Thursday's 5-2 loss to Anaheim.

Tied at 1-1 at the start of the third period the game was there for the taking, but the Sabres came up way short.  Anaheim scored in the first minute of the final period and the Sabres didn't even come close to contending the rest of the way.  When the Ducks went up 4-1 fans began heading for the exits knowing another big comeback was highly unlikely.

Essentially the Ducks buried the Sabres in the third period, outscoring them 4-1, and outshooting them for the game 44-26.  You can't expect to win too many games when you give up 44 shots.

Jack Eichel on the power play and Rasmus Ristolainen late in the third period scored the Buffalo goals.  You can't fault Robin Lehner on the shots he let in.  He didn't get a whole lot of help defensively.  Thursday's game was the Sabres' first regulation loss in eight games ending a 6-0-1 run.

The Sabres have a few pieces in place, but they still have a long way to go to compete game in and game out with the better teams in the league.  There's a lot of room for improvement on what right now is a weak team.

The Sabres played in Toronto on Saturday night and are back home Sunday to host Vancouver.