Both Bylsma and Foligno emphasized the importance of a strong start in front of their home crowd on Thursday. After having trailed following the first period in their last six games, Buffalo jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes of their game in Detroit on Tuesday and carried that momentum to a 4-3 win. Their record when leading after the first period this season is 7-0-3.
"We all have to be on the same page for these two games," Foligno said. "It's obviously something that we've got to do better at our home rink here is get the fans into it, get our game established early. We really haven't been doing great here at home and that's definitely on us. It's something that we need to take pride in."
Other than slow starts, Bylsma said the Sabres' struggles in shootouts are what's separated them from having long winning streaks this season. He pointed to their back-to-back shootout losses on the road against Carolina and Florida as an example. Had the Sabres won those shootouts, they would've been on a four-game winning streak. Instead, with regulation losses in their next two games, those one-point efforts became the beginning of a four-game winless streak.
The current streaks in the NHL back up Bylsma's claim. The Blue Jackets have won two shootouts and another game in overtime during their current streak, while the Minnesota Wild's current 11-game win streak began with back-to-back overtime and shootout victories.
"I think you look at our season, you've probably got to win a shootout. You've probably got to win an overtime game to keep a streak going," Bylsma said. "I think every team that puts four and five and six together, they win some games going away and also they win in a shootout. They tie a game late, get an overtime victory and continue their streak going that way."
"That's something we haven't been able to do … We're going to have to probably win some games a couple different ways, a lot of different ways to get going on a streak."
