Now what? The Buffalo Sabres insist they're moving forward, trying to wipe out an 0-4 week

that has erased all but one point of their Northeast Division lead. They will get back on the

practice ice today in HSBC Arena trying to finish strong in their final week before the

Olympic break.

Coming to HSBC will be Boston on Tuesday and San Jose on Saturday. In between is a trip to

Carolina on Thursday. Then it will be nearly 2 weeks off for the Olympics.

But it's not nearly so simple as erasing the week that featured losses to Pittsburgh,

Ottawa, Carolina and Columbus. Lots of problem areas keep cropping up and it's likely many of

them were addressed in coach Lindy Ruff's 23-minute postgame meeting Saturday in Columbus.

"It's knowing your role and responsibility and getting back to that," Ruff said after the

dreadful 4-0 loss to the Blue Jackets. "We played well [earlier in the season], won a lot of

one-goal games and took a lot of pride in our play away from the puck. Areas of that have

slipped."



Sure have.

The Sabres have scored just five goals in the last three games, only three by forwards.

They have been downright inept at times in their own zone. The power play is 0 for 14 in the

last three and goaltending has been shaky for the first time all season.

"We've got to believe we're a good team here," said backup goalie Patrick Lalime, who was

burned by a fluke tally from center ice by Columbus' Milan Jurcina. "We had been playing

great. A lot of teams go through stretches like that. It's how you respond, how you get back

out of it. We had a good meeting [Saturday]. We have to believe in here."



The Sabres have forwards who aren't scoring and defensemen who are struggling. Ruff has

adjusted this year to a huge decrease in practice time because of the compressed scheduled but

he was fretting about his team's troubles Saturday. They might get quite a workout today.

"Most of this has been mental," Ruff said. "You look at a couple errors and mentally we

haven't been very sharp. We've tried to have more time away [from the ice] and more time away

means less practice time. You worry about how sharp your team is."

. . .





Can't blame Tim Kennedy for Saturday's loss. The South Buffalo native was a healthy scratch

after going minus-5 in the previous two games, including dropped coverages on two key goals.

Kennedy was among the players who didn't pick up Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson when the

Senators captain scored the tie-breaking goal in the final minute Wednesday. And he was a step

late to prevent Carolina's Tom Kostopoulos from tying Friday's game in the third period.

"That's just the way the game is going right now," Kennedy said before Saturday's game.

"Sometimes, every time you touch the puck, something good happens. Right now, bad things are

happening when I'm trying to come back in our zone and I have to keep working.

"I was a second too late [on the Carolina goal]. But that one second in the AHL or at

school would be enough for me to get back. Here, it's in the back of our net and the game is

tied. You have to learn from that. It's tough when you lose leads off mistakes. It's

frustrating but I have to work through it."



Kennedy has six goals and 12 assists but has dropped to a minus-4 for the season. He's

minus-7 since Jan. 6 and has just two goals in the last 22 games he's played.

"I've been talking to some of the guys who have been playing for a while," Kennedy said.

"They say the same thing: It's just one of those stretches you go through that you have to

keep fighting through and work yourself out of it."