BOSTON — Connor Clifton spent his first five NHL seasons as part of a winning team with the Boston Bruins. He knows what it’s like to make the playoffs year after year and even make the Stanley Cup Final. Clifton also knows what it’s like to lose in the Final.
But he’s been in an unfamiliar territory the last two seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres finished 39-37-6 last year — good for sixth in the Atlantic Division. But they missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for a 13th straight season. Things remained difficult to begin the 2024-25 campaign, but have reached a new low.
Buffalo was handed its 13th consecutive loss on Saturday night despite playing some strong hockey against the Bruins for the full 60 minutes. The Sabres outshot Boston and started faster than their opponent. But Morgan Geekie’s game-winner in the final two minutes of the third period followed by Brad Marchand’s empty-netter sealed Buffalo’s fate.
“I thought we competed. We played a high 50 minutes of really good hockey and we haven’t had that in a bunch of games,” Clifton told reporters after the game. “We competed, we won battles, we bought into our system, we took care of the D zone, we blocked shots. We really battled for each other. Obviously, we didn’t get the result. … We gotta start finding a way to win games.”
While they’re facing adversity by way of losses, Clifton knows at some point it’s going to end and they just need to get through it together as a team.
“We gotta find a way to get on the other side of it,” he said. “Obviously, it’s been loss after loss here. We just keep talking about ending it and we gotta do it and play the right way for 60 minutes. … We’re gonna find a way to turn this around and end this streak.”
The Sabres have one more game — Monday against the New York Islanders — before the NHL breaks for Christmas. Perhaps some time off and extra rest will be good for the Sabres as they try to regroup, but they can try to go into the break on a high note.
Should Buffalo lose to New York, it will match its second-longest losing streak in franchise history. The Sabres lost 14 games during the 2014-15 season. Their longest losing streak is 18 games during the 2020-21 season.
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