Wings trampled 7-3 in Buffalo, losing streak at six games: 'It's not good'

Buffalo — The Red Wings are finally coming home and not quickly enough.

The road hasn't been a kind place, this four-game road trip ending with an absolute thud, a 7-3 loss on Tuesday in Buffalo, stretching the Wings' losing streak to six games.

The Wings were banking on some better hockey over the last two losses in Arizona and Vegas to possibly carry them Tuesday a needed victory.

By no stretch did that happen, thanks to an awful start. The Sabres led 4-1 a little over 15 minutes into the game, goaltender Alex Lyon was pulled, and really, it really didn't get much better from there.

"Awful start," coach Derek Lalonde said. "We had no legs, no pace, they were playing fast and we give them that easy offense early on and then we just got rattled and got out of our structure.

"It just piled up in the first period."

And now, as the Wings host Arizona on Thursday, beginning another three-game in four-day stretch, there are a litany of issues developing.

The Wings aren't scoring enough. They're allowing way too many defensively. And the goaltending is springing a leak.

BOX SCORE: Sabres 7, Red Wings 3

And they're still without captain Dylan Larkin (lower-body) and goaltender Ville Husso (lower-body), and Tuesday lost Joe Veleno (upper-body) after taking a puck to the side of his neck, although Lalonde was confident Veleno could return for Thursday's game.

But, mainly, it's some lousy starts to games recently that have plagued and hurt the Wings.

Above all else, the Wings are starting real slow, letting opponents dictate the game, and the Wings are falling behind and playing way too much catch up.

"We all know that game was just put out there wasn't what we need at this time of the year," defenseman Jeff Petry said. "Especially with the circumstances we have on hand, and everybody realizes that. We know we have to be better.

"They came out and dictated the pace and we gave them too much space to enter our zone and neutral zone early on."

The poor starts will be addressed by Lalonde and the coaching staff the next 48 hours before the Arizona game.

"It's disappointing because we showed some (positive) signs in Vegas," Lalonde said. "All we're going to concentrate on the next two days is our start at home on Thursday. It's a little (about) mentality, 100 percent. It's just, again, frustrating because we had a little pushback with the group in Vegas and then the start we had (Tuesday), we simply couldn't find our game throughout. It's not good."

The Wings fell back below the playoff line by percentage points after Tuesday's loss. And with only 17 games remaining, the Wings are toying with missing the playoffs for the eighth consecutive year.

"We're running out (of time)," Lalonde said. "Luckily we've had some stretches in our season to keep us in this battle but you'll run out of time. Our focus will be the first period on Thursday, a good start on Thursday."

Ben Chiarot, Lucas Raymond (power play) and Jake Walman had the Wings' goals. Alex Lyon made nine saves on 13 shots before being pulled after Buffalo took a 4-1 first-period lead, while James Reimer stopped 23-of-26 shots.

Lalonde absolved the goaltending, saying the Wings' defense wasn't nearly good enough.

"With our six-game win streak and how good we were for a stretch there, our goaltending was outstanding," Lalonde said. "But this is not on the goaltending at all. We let the goalies out to dry."

The Sabres began the onslaught just 1 minute, 7 seconds into the game as Alex Tuch skated around Chiarot, broke free alone and slid a puck past Lyon for his 18th goal.

And from there it was all Sabres.

The Sabres led 4-1 on Jeff Skinner's 21st goal, sending Lyon to the bench. But the Sabres had one goal disallowed for an off-side goal, had another shot that straddled the goal-line, missed another quality chance, so it could have easily been another couple of Buffalo goals.

"We just need to start off simple, get pucks deep and I know it's cliche but that's what has been working for us," Raymond said. "Skating and getting pucks to the net and play hard defensively. That's what we need to start."

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The Sabres didn't let up in the middle 20 minutes with Kyle Clifton and Bowen Byram (his second goal Tuesday) quickly stretching the lead to 6-1 before Raymond scored his 18th, batting in a loose puck.

Wings' players insisted afterward there is a belief in each other and a confidence they can turn this losing streak around. But they need to do it quickly.

"There are things we've identified that have slipped into our game and things we need to improve on," Petry said. "We all believe in each other in here and we believe we have a group to come out of this and come out of this stronger. It's going to take a complete 60-minute effort to continue to build off those things."

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

@tkulfan