Following a six-game skid, the Detroit Red Wings have rebounded with solid play across the bench.
Since the losing streak, they have gone 6-2-1 and defeated the Buffalo Sabres Friday night, 3-1.
“We had a stretch when we were playing pretty well and losing, and we had to talk about it,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “This is a hard league, and you’ve got to be great to win. We’ve done a pretty good job of that, but we have to keep it going.”
The resurgent Jimmy Howard made 19 saves to pick up the victory.
Luke Glendening, Tomas Tatar and Dylan Larkin scored for the Wings.
Ryan O’Reilly struck for the lone Sabres goal and Buffalo continues to find ways to lose games.
“We are embarrassed by this,” O’Reilly said. “We have to play with a lot more effort than we showed tonight.”
The loss, their fourth straight, dropped Buffalo to 5-10-5.
Buffalo spent much of the game on special teams with the Red Wings having a series of power play chances including a short 5-on-3.
“When you are spending that much time killing penalties, it takes you out of the game,” O’Reilly said. “You wear out the guys that are killing, and the guys who aren’t end up sitting around. You never get any rhythm.”
It is hard to not see where the Sabres as a team does not erupt into a spasm of finger-pointing and blame gaming. This is a team with talent but no leadership on the ice, at least no leadership from the team’s captain and alternates or star players.
“We got outworked, outplayed and outhustled. When we are intense and focused on every battle, we can be a good hockey team. We didn’t do any of that tonight,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said after the dismal effort.
Last season the Sabres fired their head coach and general manager for the failures on the ice and this season they are no better and perhaps a touch worse than last.
At some point, the Sabres brass may need to evaluate their signings and on ice talent and say enough is enough; move the talent to other teams and get players willing to work for the crest on the sweater.
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Red Wings highlights]
Robin Lehner took the loss on 30 saves.
“It doesn’t matter if I think I’m playing well, because we keep losing games,” Lehner said.
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