Buffalo Sabres Embarrass Themselves In Front of the Home Fans

Every few games the Buffalo Sabres give a whole-hearted effort that provides their fans with some excitement and satisfaction.  They don't score very often and don't win very many games, but their game against the New York Rangers on Thursday night was one of those games where you can say they gave it a good try.

Then you have games like Saturday afternoon where they completely embarrass themselves.  With lots of kids and families in attendance because it's an afternoon game it gives the team a chance to grow their fan base, but I saw people leaving in the 2nd period.  The Sabres were so awful it looked like a lot of these high-paid players just simply quit in a 7-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner gave up a couple of bad goals before he was pulled in favor of Chad Johnson, but Johnson wasn't much better.  But don't blame this on the goaltenders.  This terrible game was a team effort, or should I say lack of effort.  How can these players look themselves in the mirror and accept a paycheck for what they displayed on the ice?

I say this so many times, but the question never gets answered.  How can the Sabres justify their play to the fans that spend their hard-earned dollars to see them play?  With a sell-out crowd on hand, and because of the cost of tickets many of these families can only afford one game a season, this is what they get for their money?

I've seen the Sabres play a lot of bad hockey over the past few years, but this game has to rank among the worst.  A 7-1 loss at home?  If it was a football game the Sabres would have lost 49-7.  This is simply a collection of talented hockey players who don't care enough to give what it takes to score goals and win hockey games.  And what a shame for a fan base that knows and loves hockey.

Sam Reinhart scored the lone Sabres goal on a rebound of a shot by Jack Eichel on the power play.  Otherwise it was all Dallas in a convincing display of a hockey team that gets it and one that doesn't.

The Sabres are out west for the next three games with stops in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.