Buffalo Sabres are missing one key element of a true turnaround

The Buffalo Sabres coasted through the first 35 minutes of Wednesday night's 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Careless passes, minimal effort win space in the most dangerous areas of the ice and zero urgency to win puck battles. In short, they had no desperation in their game.

That lack of a consistently high compete level is the hallmark of the 2025-26 Sabres so far. They have stretches where they look like a potential playoff team, but that crucial element of building a winning environment goes missing far, far too often.

Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff discussed how often his team was hemmed in its own zone as the Pens clogged the neutral zone and kept outworking the Sabres for the puck.

"You're getting it out, they're getting it right back in," Ruff told reporters. "We got trapped in that situation where you're trying to advance it and change players, and they're coming right back at you. We've done that to teams."

The Sabres nearly got away with it as Jason Zucker tied the game at one early in the third period. The very next shift, however, Buffalo lost all sense of structure in the defensive zone and Bryan Rust scored as the Pens took the lead for good.

Buffalo's shown some promising signs in recent weeks as it got key players back from injury, but until the club's mentality changes — its game-to-game effort must improve tenfold — frustrating losses like the one to Pittsburgh will remain the norm.

Quite simply, the Sabres aren't anywhere good enough to take shifts off and expect win games. A 14-year playoff drought is no fluke, and many of the players in the lineup have now been with the organization for several years of that misery.

The Blue and Gold's only path to the postseason is playing with unrelenting desperation for the final 59 games of the regular season.

As Buffalo sports fans wait to see if that's possible, let's dive into the latest edition of our Sabres player grades series, which continues to deliver topsy-turvy results.

Jack Quinn's continued resurgence was a silver lining in Buffalo Sabres' Nov. 26 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins

Sabres player grades

Buffalo Player of the Game: Jack Quinn

After a stretch where Quinn recorded no goals and one assist across an eight-game span, the enigmatic 24-year-old winger has come alive. He's lit the lamp in three straight games and also tallied a pair of helpers over that span.

Quinn's production has been virtually impossible to predict since he returned from an Achilles injury suffered during the 2023 offseason. He'll go on some torrid stretches where he piles up points in bunches, but he also goes invisible for extended stretches.

Just like the Sabres as a whole, the 2020 first-round draft pick would benefit incredibly from vastly improved consistency. He's not an elite skater, so his effectiveness is directly linked to how hard he's willing to work to get into prime scoring areas.

One thing's for sure: Buffalo's offense is a lot tougher to deal with when Quinn is playing his best hockey in the middle six.

Sabres quick hits

• Rasmus Dahlin has played much better since his return from a leave of absence. It wouldn't be a surprise to see a barrage of points for the Sabres captain soon.

• Jacob Bryson has been surprisingly effective while filling in for the injured Michael Kesselring.

• Beck Malenstyn was one of the Sabres' lowest-graded players for much of the first 20 games, but he's been a lot more effective lately.

• Buffalo needed more from Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram against Pittsburgh.

• While the team's goaltending rotation isn't easy to navigate while carrying three on the roster, simply starting one goalie until they have a bad game probably won't yield the best overall results.

• The Sabres (9-10-4) return to the ice Friday afternoon (4 p.m. ET) when they host the New Jersey Devils (15-7-1) at the KeyBank Center.