The loss was the 11th in a row for the Sabres against the Blackhawks, a drought that dates back to Dec. 11, 2009. Chicago has been a perennial contender over that span of time, and it was the usual suspects who helped beat the Sabres on Sunday. Marian Hossa scored the go-ahead goal to break a 1-1 tie midway through the second period, and Jonathan Toews followed suit shortly after.
Patrick Kane did the rest of the damage in the third, first with a quick one-time feed to set up Artem Anisimov just 3:29 into the period and then by cleaning up a rebound for a goal of his own less than three minutes later.
Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said the game became the type of track meet his team didn't want it to be. That's mostly because of the Blackhawks' ability to thrive on the rush, but it also couldn't have helped that the Sabres were playing their 11th game in 18 days. The grueling stretch comes as a byproduct of the new NHL bye week; with the five days off comes an otherwise condensed schedule.
When it was all said and done, the Sabres won six of those 11 games, earned points in seven and put themselves within ear shot of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
"We got beat by a good team," Bylsma said. "Yes, we've played a lot of games in the last 19 days and a lot in the last week here. It was a challenge and a measuring stick against a really good team and we come on the wrong end of it. Still, we're four of our last six, we've had a good stretch of games here and those were important games for us to win …
" … It doesn't feel good right now because it's a game we don't win today. This was a stretch of a lot of games in 19 days where we needed to get some wins, and, especially in the last six, guys have done that. Guys have played hard hockey and they've gotten wins and that's exactly what we needed to do to try and get ourselves into the mix."