TORONTO — Lindy Ruff has spent more than 1,800 regular-season games behind the bench in the NHL.
The Buffalo Sabers head coach knows his way around hockey. He also had never felt the pressure and tension of a stretch like this.
The search for answers continues.
“I’m almost speechless,” Love said after Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a game that left the Sabers without a win for their tenth straight game. “It’s my responsibility to fix this. It’s the hardest fix I’ve ever had to deal with, but it’s my responsibility to put these guys in the right position to win a hockey game.
“No one else – just me.”
Buffalo is 0-7-3 since the club’s last win, a 4-2 road win over the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 23.
The Sabers led 2-0 and 3-1 on Sunday when the two teams met for the second time in less than 24 hours, but they couldn’t get over it as the Maple Leafs found their footing after a sluggish start.
“They really came after us,” said Love, the 2006 Jack Adams Award winner and NHL Coach of the Year, now in his second coaching tenure in Buffalo. “We couldn’t win enough battles down low. I thought some of our puck decisions got us into trouble.”
Sabers forward Alex Tuch said his team has taken its foot off the gas.
“Effort is not enough,” he said. “Our details are not good enough.”
Buffalo winger Jack Quinn, who returned to the lineup after missing the past five games due to injury, scored twice to end a 16-game goal drought.
“We have to find a way to win,” he said. “This one will sting.”
The Sabers recalled goalie Devin Levi from the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, who will play in his first NHL game since Nov. 16 against the Maple Leafs.
“I don’t think the team played poorly,” he said. “Now it’s the hockey gods…just weighing in with the team and testing everyone to see how we’re going to respond.
“These guys are working hard. Everybody wants it.”
Toronto scored three goals in 2 minutes and 31 seconds of the second quarter, turning the Sabers’ 3-1 advantage into a 4-3 deficit. Love tried to calm down the players through a timeout.
“Listen, we can do this,” he said of his message. “It’s difficult right now. We have to work together, but we have to believe in how we need to play to get the job done.”
Tachi summed up the feeling in the dressing room as a miserable month continued.
“Quite (lame), to be honest,” he said. “Losing 10 games in a row, it feels bad.
The 23-year-old striker scored his second and third goals of the season after watching the game from the press box. Entering Sunday, his only goal came against Detroit on Oct. 26, when the Red Wings stretched the goalie.
“It’s frustrating,” Quinn said. “It sucks not playing, but just using it as an opportunity to find my legs and get a little pop back.”
Toronto center John Tavares scored twice in the second quarter and scored in an empty net, his 15th goal of the season and the 14th hat trick of his NHL career.
“He’s been working hard,” Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said of the 34-year-old. “This guy is heavy, he’s smart, he’s competitive. Even at this age, he’s still working on his game. He’s still doing a good job. He’s outstanding.”
Tavares, meanwhile, is pleased to see the club score five goals from 41 shots after scoring two or fewer goals in four of their last five games.
“The puck probably hasn’t gone in yet,” he said. “But I think we’re still growing and finding our way of playing and our identity as a team.
“There are a lot of good signs … and we want to build on that.”
