Hey Buffalo Sabres, this is all getting pretty old now.

The Buffalo Sabres are hemorrhaging, and it is getting old.

After a promising 5-1-1 start to the season, the Sabres have dropped 10 of their last 12 and are making their annual descent to the bottom of the standings. There are still three teams in the Eastern Conference that have fewer points than Buffalo but a few more games like the ones we have seen recently should put the Sabres on the bottom where every hockey pundit outside Buffalo thinks they belong.

The 10 losses this past month (dating back to the loss to the L.A. Kings on Halloween night) have come in a variety of ways. Against the Kings and Red Wings, the Sabres had leads that should have been held but were squandered. Against the Rangers and Maple Leafs they fought hard and played well enough to be tied late in the third period only to give up heartbreaking goals in the dying seconds of regulation. And against the Sharks, Kraken, Capitals, Flames, Blue Jackets and Bruins they were run out of the arena for most or part of the game and gave up five or more goals in each one.

The Sabres have clearly lost the effort-driven edge they played with in the first seven games, and it is showing in the shot totals each night. The shots-against number has gotten progressively worse and on Wednesday night they gave up a season-high 47 shots on goal to the Boston Bruins on their way to a 5-1 loss.

During several games of this 12-game stretch, it has looked like an impossible feat to get and keep the puck long enough to generate any momentum. The Sabres struggled to complete more than a couple of clean passes in a row while opposing teams completed pass after pass in all three zones.

There are bright spots, to be sure. Tage Thompson is a revelation, and he is showing his prodigious skills every night. I didn’t have great things to say about Thompson in my book “Group Therapy for Sabres Fans” (now available) but this season he is making me happily eat my words. Rasmus Dahlin is looking better with the puck these days, too. We also are happy to have Victor Olofsson and Henri Jokiharju back in the lineup and word is Casey Mittelstadt isn’t far behind.

It has been said over and over again (including by me) that things are looking up and the future is bright. There are some exciting names on the horizon in Quinn, Peterka, Krebs, Power, Tuch, Levi, Portillo and maybe even UPL, Rosen and Johnson. It has also been said that patience is the key to rebuilding the right way and this season is not as much about winning as it is about establishing a better culture.

But none of those prospects are here yet and patience is a hard thing to come by for a fan base that has been beaten nearly to death since 2011.

The Sabres are half way through a six-game in nine night stretch and so far they have a big fat zippo to show for it. This weekend they face Montreal, Detroit and Seattle on Friday, Saturday and Monday. All three of those games are winnable. It is the perfect opportunity to build something instead of watching things continue to collapse.