The Buffalo Sabres' season is beginning to unravel.
The Sabres fell 6-1 to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night, marking the club's fourth loss in its last five games. Buffalo is now 11 points back of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Forward Sam Reinhart says the players have nobody to blame but themselves.
"It's all coming down to the players at this point," he told The Buffalo News' Mike Harrington postgame. "The systems and the game plans that are set out for us give us an opportunity to have success ... Guys need to demand more of themselves and a lot of guys need to step the hell up."
Reinhart scored Buffalo's lone tally in the ugly defeat and is on pace for career highs in goals (29) and points (68) this season. He ranks second on the team - behind captain Jack Eichel - in both those categories.
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen also sounded off after the loss.
"We didn't play good enough. We didn't work hard enough," he told The Athletic's John Vogel. "Today was shit."
Head coach Ralph Krueger called the loss "truly unacceptable," according to Harrington.
The frustration extends outside the Sabres' dressing room, too. Before the contest, general manager Jason Botterill admitted that owners Terry and Kim Pegula aren't pleased with the team's season thus far.
"To put it bluntly, my conversations with Terry and Kim, they’re frustrated with the results," Botterill said on WGR-Radio. "They want better results."
The Sabres had a glorious opportunity to make up some ground coming off their 10-day break last week, but lost to the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens by a combined score of 8-3.
"You can understand our fans' frustration," Botterill said. "Our organization is frustrated by that."
A diehard Sabres fan spoke for all of western New York last week with a passionate radio rant that went viral after he called out the club's ownership.
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