The Buffalo Sabres were looking to extend their win streak to three on Wednesday night with a road game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Unfortunately, it felt like the game was over before it even really got started, with the Flyers scoring three goals in under a minute in the first period, and they cruised to a 5-2 win.
After the game, Lindy Ruff was asked about the performance of his top guys (Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Rasmus Dahlin) and he didn't hold back. "The top guys failed the test. We took a bad penalty, a bad clear, and we had plenty of opportunities to get back into the game," Ruff said.
"We weren't sharp. We have talked about consistent play and we failed the test on consistent play."
It started early as Alex Tuch failed to clear the puck in the closing seconds of a power play, and the Flyers were able to capitalize to tie the game. The Sabres would challenge the goal for goalie interference and were unsuccessful, which put Buffalo right back in a penalty kill situation.
After giving up another goal, the Sabres tried to regroup but had another bad turnover that the Flyers would control and beat Colten Ellis for the third goal in less than a minute.
Tage Thompson takes some ownership after the game and needs to be better for the Buffalo Sabres
While Ruff didn't mention Tuch specifically, he did mention Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin. In regard to Thompson, he talked about some great scoring opportunities that he wasn't able to convert and mentioned the hit Rasmus Dahlin gave in the second period that resulted in a game misconduct.
After the game, Brian Koziol of WGR550 tweeted that Thompson noted that he needs to get better in these situations where it feels like the game is slipping away. He needs to help the team reset on the bench and in between periods to try and help them get back into it.
Thompson says special teams could've changed the game for them drastically, says they need to do a better job of resetting on the bench and in between periods, and says he takes the blame for that, he says he needs to help in that area. #Sabres
— Brian Koziol (@BrianWGR) December 4, 2025
The problem is that the Sabres are over 25 games into the regular season, and they should have had plenty of time to correct this. It feels like any time they have any type of success, as they did over the last two games, they lose the intensity or focus and have a sloppy game, as they did against the Flyers.
For Buffalo, they have a chance to get back into the playoffs, even with how poorly the season has started. It is due to the parity in the Eastern Conference this season, but if they hope to do so, they need to be consistent with their performance on a nightly basis, and there isn't anything so far this season that says they can do that.