The winless streak has officially hit 15.
That's a new franchise record for the Buffalo Sabres, who most recently went winless in 14-straight games back in the 2014-15 season when Ted Nolan was behind the bench for his second stint as head coach.
The Sabres were never really in this one to break their streak either, as the Pittsburgh Penguins were all over Buffalo in a 5-2 win at the PPG Paints Arena.
Let's take a look at three observations from Wednesday night's game:
1.) Sabres down early and never recover
It's happened in many different ways for the Sabres in the first period. More often than not, it's their opponent who scores the first goal of the game, and Wednesday was no exception.
The Penguins attacked Buffalo early, and it was former Sabres, current Penguins forward Evan Rodrigues who struck first, tapping in a great pass in a 3-on-1 situation from Sam Lafferty just 7:36 into the game.
The Penguins peppered Sabres netminder Dustin Tokarski with 21 shots in the first period, and for the most part, Tokarski did his job in stopping shots he should be stopping, while sprinkling in some miraculous saves in the process.
The Penguins struck again later to put themselves up 2-0 with a goal from Kris Letang, finding a deflected puck in front of Tokarski forced on a play behind the net by Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. His pass deflected off Colin Miller directly to the front of Tokarski. All Letang had to do with shoot the puck with no one on him.
Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin scored to put the Sabres within one, but things unraveled from there.
2.) Second periods have been brutal for Buffalo
Once again, the second period was a problem for the Sabres.
Buffalo hasn't fared well in second periods this year. They've scored just 26 goals in the middle frame, the eighth-least amount in the NHL. On the defensive side, Buffalo has allowed 44 goals in second periods, the second-most allowed only to the Ottawa Senators' 48 goals.
That's not good for a team that frequently trails their opponent heading into the second period.
Buffalo has a lot of things to figure out, and this is only one of them on a long list of things.
3.) Rasmus Dahlin is having a rough go of it
The former first overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres is certainly not performing like that status in the 2020-21 season.
Dahlin was expected to turn a corner in his development this season, but nobody thought the corner he was turning would leave him worse off.
Dahlin averages 16:36 time-on-ice per-game at 5-on-5, fourth on the Sabres among defensemen. In all situations, he averages 20:52 per-game, just a couple of minutes behind Rasmus Ristolainen.
The 20-year-old defenseman had one of his toughest games with the Sabres on Wednesday night. He was on the ice for a couple of goals-against at 5-on-5, as well as a shorthanded goal in which Dahlin couldn't handle a bad pass from Sabres forward Taylor Hall. Dahlin became unbalanced on the play as Penguins forward Frédérick Gaudreau deked around him and used his speed to generate a chance that the Penguins ultimately converted with Zach Aston-Reese being the beneficiary.
While Dahlin is not a lost cause, there are definitely some concerns about his game. He hasn't really increased his ice time since his rookie season, actually taking a bit of a cut in that area from his rookie season to sophomore season, but this year he's back to the ice time he was getting as a rookie. The biggest difference has been competition, the quality of which has increased this season with Dahlin playing tougher minutes.
Dahlin will be someone to keep an eye on as the season draws closer to the end.
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Buffalo gets a chance to stop the bleeding on Thursday night against this same Penguins team at PPG Paints Arena.
We'll have coverage of this one starting at 6 p.m. ET with the Paul William Beltz Pregame Show hosted by Schopp and the Bulldog. Puck drop is schedule for just after 7 p.m. ET on the radio flagship station of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.
