Leafs sent Sabres coach into tailspin after huge Toronto comeback
The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t the only team to beat up on the Buffalo Sabres, but they’ve certainly contributed to the franchise’s demise.
And after his Sabres went from 3-1 up over the Leafs to 4-3 down in under two minutes on Sunday evening, Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff appeared nearly distraught at the state of his team.
While the loss itself might’ve been tough for any coach to swallow, the Sabres are now on a 10-game losing streak and in danger of missing the playoffs once again, as they hold the league’s longest active postseason drought.
“I’m almost lost for words,” Ruff said following Sunday’s game. “It’s on me to solve this. This is the toughest solve I’ve been around, but it is on me to get these guys in the right place to win a hockey game… and nobody else — just me.”
“We couldn’t win enough battles down low. I thought some of our puck decisions got us in trouble,” Ruff added.
Leafs coach Craig Berube, on the other hand, was complimentary of his players’ resolve to facilitate the comeback, with the win pushing Toronto to the top of the Atlantic Division standings.
“We had good intentions in the first period. We took a penalty on the first shift and got behind. After the first seven minutes, we started to take over and started to really get going,” Berube told reporters postgame. “The guys battled hard — all of the lines. I thought everybody was solid tonight, worked hard, competed hard, did a lot of good things, and stayed with it.”
For Ruff, he appeared to try to look past the team’s lengthy losing streak.
“Listen, we can do this,” he said of what he told his team. “This is hard right now. We’ve got to do it together, but we’ve got to believe in how we need to play to get the job done.”
But it seems his players are having a hard time being positive as a loss to their divisional rival added salt to the wound of the team’s tailspin.
“Pretty sh*tty, honestly,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “Losing 10 in a row, there’s no good feelings.”
The Sabres, amazingly, are only six points out of a playoff spot despite being 14th in the Eastern Conference. But given their recent track record, they’ll need to do some serious soul-searching if they hope to turn yet another disappointing season around.
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