The Buffalo Sabres took a 3-0 advantage into the third period against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, with the end of their 17-game winless streak on the horizon. By the end of overtime, however, the Sabres skated off the ice without a victory for the 18th consecutive game, tying the all-time NHL record set by the 2003-04 Pittsburgh Penguins.
So much has gone wrong for a team that was never particularly strong on paper, to begin with. Buffalo battled a COVID-19 outbreak in early February and later lost captain Jack Eichel and starting netminder Linus Ullmark to long-term injuries.
The club fired head coach Ralph Krueger earlier this month, but the change hasn't done anything to spark better results. Offseason addition Taylor Hall has been a complete shell of himself, $9-million man Jeff Skinner still can't find the net, and the team looks like it's simply waiting for the season to finish.
With the Sabres at risk of setting the longest winless streak in NHL history on Wednesday night, we take a look back at some eye-popping statistics the club has endured throughout its slide.
Minus-45: The Sabres' goal differential during the skid. They've been outscored 75-30 and allowed at least three goals in every game, conceding an average of 4.11. Mikko Rantanen, the NHL's leading scorer since the Sabres' last win, has 26 points of his own to the Sabres' 30 goals.
.878: Buffalo's team save percentage over the 18 games. With Ullmark injured, the trio of Carter Hutton, Jonas Johansson, and Dustin Tokarski were absolutely shelled. Ullmark was back in goal for the two most recent losses, so the 27-year-old should help the team snap the slide soon.
5: The Sabres have been shut out five times amid the slump. The Detroit Red Wings are the only other team to be blanked five times this season, and those came in their 36 total games.
8: Sam Reinhart's team-leading point total since the Sabres' last win. Reinhart ranks 167th among all players in that span. Only six forwards have netted more than one goal, and Hall isn't one of them.
0.08%: The Sabres' dreadful power play has been almost non-existent. Buffalo has just three goals with the man advantage, and two of those tallies came in the first of the 18 losses back in February.
7: Buffalo has lost multiple games to all seven teams in the division except for the Washington Capitals, who have had the fortune of playing the Sabres only once.
11: The total number of losses by three-plus goals. The Sabres haven't even been close to winning the majority of games throughout the losing streak.
13: The number of times Buffalo allowed the first goal, which leads all NHL teams during the 18-game span.
1 - Plus/minus is an overused stat, but it's worth noting that just one player has avoided the dreaded dash throughout the losing streak. Congratulations to Tobias Rieder for his even rating, though the German winger has appeared in just 12 of the 18 outings.
Copyright © 2021 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.