It was a grim-faced bunch of Buffalo Sabres that trudged through the lobby of the Amherst Pepsi Center on the way to a brief team meeting in an upstairs conference room Friday afternoon. Despite Thursday’s impressive 5-1 win at red-hot Carolina, there was nothing to feel good about.

The playoff race ended with the New York Rangers’ 2-1 win Thursday over Philadelphia so there will be no spring flings with hockey in Buffalo for the second straight year and the fifth time in seven seasons.

Reality began to set in Friday.

“It’s disappointing,” said center Paul Gaustad. “Guys have to look in the mirror. It starts with each person in the room. I have to find ways to be better myself and everybody else has to do the same thing. It’s unacceptable with this group. I think we have a lot of growing to do. It’s disappointing. It falls on the players.”

“There’s nothing I can stand here and say that’s going to make it better,” added coach Lindy Ruff, who was understandably more downcast in his chat with the media than any day this season. “Right now the mood is real bad. The mood the last couple weeks has been pretty good.”

The Sabres finish the season today in HSBC Arena against the Boston Bruins, the top team in the Eastern Conference. Buffalo is 6-2-1 in the last nine games and trying to put the capper on a solid 10-game segment to finish the season.

Thursday’s win was its 40th of the season, the most in franchise history for a non-playoff year. But it will only mean a ninth-or 10th-place finish in the East.

“It’s frustrating to go out when we feel like in the last few weeks we played good hockey,” goaltender Ryan Miller said after Thursday’s victory. “[Going 6-2-1 is] good hockey down the stretch. You’re going to lose some here and there against teams like Detroit and New Jersey. I thought we took care of our business.”

Ruff was still in game-prep mode and wasn’t entertaining talk of what’s next for this club Friday.

He also deflected the notion that his own job may be on the line during the offseason as much as some of his players.

“That’s part of the business,” Ruff said. “I don’t take it lightly that we don’t make it and I don’t look for excuses when we don’t make it. There should be heat.”

“He takes a lot of heat for us and not all of it is just,” Gaustad said. “It’s a team thing. It’s players. We’re the ones that play the game. That’s kind of an excuse for some of the media, putting the blame on him. It’s players as well. . . . [The coaches] give us the right system. It’s execution on our part. We have to find a way to be better.”

The Sabres are 3-2 against the Bruins this year but the teams have not met since Jan. 3. Boston would have been their playoff opponent if they had sneaked into the No. 8 slot and the regular-season record certainly would have rendered Buffalo a dangerous opponent for a top seed.

“We’re going to go out and try to win a game and prepare like we normally do,” Ruff said. “It’s easy to look back on everything. I think playoffs are a whole different category. I’m not going to deal with any of those scenarios until I’m done tomorrow.”

Ruff said Toni Lydman has an undisclosed injury and will be replaced on defense by 40-year-old Teppo Numminen, who could be playing his final NHL game. Ruff would not name a starting goaltender, so there’s a good chance Miller will sit to make sure nothing else happens to his ankle and Mikael Tellqvist will get the start.

The Bruins have two games left, today’s contest and Sunday’s late afternoon tilt on Long Island. They have already wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference but are three points behind San Jose in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy (the Sharks finish their season today at Los Angeles). Boston’s 114 points are its highest total since it posted 119 in 1971-72, the last year it won the Stanley Cup.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron took a shot off the foot Thursday against Montreal and will miss both games. Mikko Lehtonen, the leading goal scorer at Providence of the AHL with 28, has been recalled and should make his NHL debut today.