One reccurring issue for the Sabres as of late has been their tendency to allow opponents to score on shifts following goals of their own. That's what lost them their game in New York on Thursday, when Pavel Buchnevich scored the winning goal for the Rangers just 1:03 after the Sabres had tied the game.
The problem arose again after a power-play goal from Sam Reinhart, which cut the deficit to 3-1 with 11:06 still left to play in the second period. Dallas responded with a goal from Jamie Benn just 38 seconds later, chasing Robin Lehner after he allowed four goals on 19 shots.
Dallas added two more goals, from Esa Lindell and Radek Faksa, ahead of the second intermission. Tyler Pitlick capped the scoring with 12:36 remaining in the third.
"That's a good hockey team with some high-end players," defenseman Josh Gorges said. "What did they do all night? They just created turnovers, threw the puck in behind us and went to work. Heavy on the forecheck, heavy in the neutral zone, heavy in their end. They just battle and compete.
"That's what it takes to win in this league. If you're not ready to have that all-out effort, compete, battle, you're not going to win many hockey games."
It was only 11 days ago that the Sabres last allowed seven goals in front of their home fans, a 7-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Since then, they'd responded with strong efforts in a win over Columbus and even in their loss to New York. That they've shown they're capable of such efforts only made the lack of work on Saturday more confounding.
"I mean, that's a million-dollar question," alternate captain Kyle Okposo said. "We've had stretches where we have but today we didn't. I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense. I'm kind of at a loss for words right now."
"Maybe we get a little too ahead of ourselves, we start feeling a little too comfortable," Gorges added. "What do we have to feel comfortable about? In no way should we come to the rink any day - game day or practice day - and feel comfortable. Because we're not in that position."
The Sabres will have plenty more chances to make it up to the home crowd. They head on the road for a three-game swing in Western Canada this week, then play nine of 16 games at home in February.
Until then, if there's one certainty, it's that there will be no rest on Sunday.
"Give Dallas credit, they came to work and we didn't," Housley said. "If we're not going to compete in our game in front of our own fans, which is very disappointing and quite embarrassing, we're going to compete tomorrow in practice."