After a 1-4-1 start this season, the Buffalo Sabres won six of nine games to climb back to .500 and regain confidence.
Then they took a 7-5 fall at home against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday afternoon, snapping a three-game winning streak.
The Sabres will try to get back on track Thursday night when they host the slumping St. Louis Blues in Buffalo, N.Y.
“We got humbled,” Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin said after Monday’s loss. “I think we were very excited about our previous games, and, I don’t know, but we know if you’re not showing up 100 percent, it’s hard to win in this league.
“I think we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror after (Monday’s game) and really dig in. We can’t play like that if we want to win,” Dahlin said.
It didn’t help that the Sabres had three players exit Monday’s game due to injury.
Star center Tage Thompson and defenseman Mattias Samuelsson sustained lower-body injuries, while goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left partly due to a minor ailment suffered earlier in practice.
Thompson, who leads Buffalo in both goals (11) and points (18), is listed as day-to-day and may play Thursday.
“He’s a huge piece of our team, and we need him out there,” Dahlin said.
Luukkonen (2.83 goals against average, 0.903 save percentage) also has a chance to play Thursday, but Samuelsson will be sidelined indefinitely.
The Sabres are catching the Blues at a vulnerable point. St. Louis has lost six of its last eight games and is also dealing with a slew of injuries.
“We’ve just got to work through it,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “You go through this as a team, and you got to stick together as a team. The belief is strong in the room, but it’s not going to come easy. We’re going to have to fight through it together.”
St. Louis led the visiting Boston Bruins 2-0 on Tuesday before allowing three goals in the final 15:07 to lose 3-2. Across their last three games, opponents have outscored the Blues 10-1 and outshot them 30-18 in the third period.
“We played two good periods tonight, and guys are playing hard for one another,” St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn said. “You just can’t take your foot off the gas. Not that we took our foot off the gas, we just played the wrong way in the third period.
“We played a little bit safe. You can’t play safe in this league. There’s too many good players that feel that, sense that and can make plays. Guys are able to put the puck in the net and that’s what happened tonight.”
The Blues got winger Mathieu Joseph off the injured list Tuesday, but they are still missing No. 1 center Robert Thomas (broken ankle) and defensemen Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy (lower-body injuries) from their top two defensive pairings.
Bannister continues shuffling his forward lines while trying to generate more offense. St. Louis is scoring 2.50 goals per game, which tied for fifth-fewest in the league through Tuesday’s games.
On the plus side, the Blues scored their first two power play goals at home against the Bruins. St. Louis ranks 27th in the NHL with 15.0 percent conversion rate with the man advantage.
