VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Buffalo Sabres had an unwelcome addition to their

charter flight home Tuesday. It was as annoying as rubber-gloved patdowns at the airport, as

deflating as the nonstop rain they encountered on their Western swing.

It was a four-game winless streak, tied for their worst slide of the season. They didn't

want it, but the coach, captain and face of the franchise were quick to admit they deserved

it.

The Sabres' slump has largely been self-induced, the trio of Lindy Ruff, Craig Rivet and

Ryan Miller surmised. They lost because they made mistakes, failed to pay attention and had

the opponents' stars outshine their own.

"I don't think that we played bad," Rivet said. "I think we're making mistakes that teams

are capitalizing on. They seem to be key mistakes in the game. We're just not getting it done

right now, which means we need to be better. We need to do more."

The next chance comes tonight, when the Sabres host the New Jersey Devils. It will be the

first game in HSBC Arena since Jan. 9, and the home crowd will see a team that is not pleased

with the way it has played.

A key factor in the last two losses, to San Jose on Saturday and Vancouver on Monday, was

defensive mistakes. The Sabres coughed up the puck twice in their own zone during a 5-2 loss

to the Sharks. They gave up breakaways and point-blank chances in the 3-2 loss to Vancouver.

"We're not going to look for excuses. We battled hard, didn't win," Ruff said. "We made

enough big mistakes that you lose a game. When you give the Sedins [Vancouver's twin forwards,

Henrik and Daniel] a breakaway from your own blue line, when our focus was not to give them

anything, I don't think you deserve to win a game.

"Don't have the system breakdowns we had. Don't give up that breakaway. Don't give up that

rush opportunity that was a nothing play. That was just a system breakdown, and every guy on

the ice knows it. I think that's a sign of some guys' focus. Some of it may be fatigue, but

you've got to shorten up your game and be even better with your system."

The Sedin twins, along with Alex Burrows, form the Canucks' top line. They combined for a

goal and four assists.

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"We gave that line a lot of space, way too much room to operate, and what we needed was a

lot more support and [to] tighten up," Miller said. "They're going to make those

lower-percentage passes [that lead to breakaways], and they pulled them off because we gave

them time to do it. Our system is built on being aggressive and fast and taking opportunity

away, and we didn't do enough of it.

"The last few games are not the way we want to play, even though I thought we did a good

job of puck control in San Jose. We let certain players on the ice that we identified as key

players, which is pretty obvious to everyone who those key players become, and we let them

have too much time, space and let them make a difference. [Monday], the same thing."

San Jose stars Dany Heatley and Joe Thornton combined for a key goal, and they were helped

by secondary scorers Joe Pavelski and Jed Ortmeyer. Rivet didn't see that kind of teamwork by

the Sabres in Vancouver.

"I think a lot of guys on this team played well," Rivet said. "I'm just not sure if it was

enough of a full team effort. I think you need all guys to play well in order to get wins

right now.

"No, I don't think it was [a four-line, six-defensemen showing]. I hate to say it.

"Our best line on the ice was Adam Mair, [Tim] Kennedy and [Matt] Ellis. Ellis was a guy

that didn't even get a warm-up [as a late addition when Drew Stafford fell ill]. Didn't even

get a warm-up, and he was one of our best players on the ice, so we're not going to win too

many hockey games."

It will be a road-weary team trying to end the four-game drought, which matches an 0-3-1

swoon in late November. The Sabres traveled more than 7,500 miles during their two-week

journey. They face a Devils squad that played in Ottawa on Tuesday night.

"There's not one team that has an easier schedule than anyone else, so we're not going to

feel sorry for ourselves because everybody's going through the same thing," Rivet said. "We

need to be prepared to play when we get home and play better."