Sabres are paying for home ice struggles and now face elimination

The atmosphere, the excitement, and the energy inside KeyBank Center have been off the charts in the Buffalo Sabres ’ long, long, long awaited return to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Unfortunately, it really hasn’t helped the Sabres as their struggles on home ice continued Thursday night in a brutal 6-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of their best-of-seven second-round series, putting them on the brink of elimination. Starved 15 years for postseason hockey, the fans have certainly brought their A-game, but the Sabres simply have not played well in front of these crazy crowds as they lost for the fourth time in six games, and unless they go into the Bell Centre and win Saturday night, the downtown sheet of ice will be melted by Sunday and a 56th season of Sabres hockey will end without a Stanley Cup celebration.

“It’s tough,” defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said of the problems at home. “There could be a lot of reasons, but we have to look ourselves in the mirror and we just have to play better on home ice. It’s unacceptable.

” The Sabres have never won a series that they’ve trailed 3-2, so that’s part of the history they’ll be trying to buck Saturday, and then possibly in Game 7 Monday. “We’ve won four out of five on the road in tough buildings, and we’ve played fast and played hard,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “The playoffs are a different animal, but our road play has been better.

If our road play is what we need to carry us through, then go to Montreal and win a game and when we come back, we’re going to pretend we’re on the road. ” Here are my observations from a terribly disappointing Game 5: Second period was a complete travesty This game was decided in the middle period. Tage Thompson had a golden opportunity on a breakaway to give Buffalo a two-goal lead less than four minutes in but he overhandled the puck and then got himself into a poor position and couldn’t lift the puck over Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes’ left pad.