You want genuine disdain? Then forget Tuesday's on-ice stuff between the Buffalo Sabres and Boston

Bruins. Sure, they had trash talking, big hits and fisticuffs, some of the bitter flavor that

used to accompany the meetings between the longtime rivals.

But the real hatred could be found in Lindy Ruff's walk to the dressing room after the

first period and his chat upon getting there. It could be found in Paul Gaustad's words, which

he's tired of repeating. It could be found in many places surrounding a team that keeps doing

just enough to lose.

The Sabres' winless streak reached five games Tuesday, as the Bruins left HSBC Arena with a

3-2 shootout victory. The Sabres outshot the Bruins, outhit them and won the special teams

matchup. They did not win the game, however, and dropped into a Northeast Division tie with

Ottawa with two fewer games played.

One of their infamous slow starts helped contribute. The Sabres fell into a 2-0 hole on

goals by Daniel Paille in the first period, and Ruff wasn't around to watch the end. He was

already off the bench and down the hall when the clock struck 0:00, with the sellout crowd

booing.

"Bad start," the coach said. "Bad start to the game. For having a day off and a good

practice day, I expected a lot more, especially the first 10 minutes.

"I walked in the room after the first period and I said, "I'm going to play the guys that

are going the best.' I said, "I don't care if I have to play two lines, if I have to play

three defensemen.' After what I saw in the first period, it wasn't good enough.

"We have to be better than that. When you lose four in a row, you've got to be better than

that."

Added Gaustad: "We knew it wasn't good enough, especially with the way we've been going."

Ruff stuck with his word by sticking with the players he liked. Tyler Myers, Henrik

Tallinder, Toni Lydman, Jason Pominville, Chris Butler, Tim Connolly and Derek Roy all played

at least 21:24. Captain Craig Rivet played just 8:58, while Clarke MacArthur and Andrej Sekera

saw the bench more than the ice.

The Sabres rallied. Roy and Myers scored during the second period, then headed to the

dressing room with cheers instead of jeers coming from the 18,690 fans.

A tie was the best Buffalo could do. Despite outshooting the Bruins, 45-34, the Sabres

couldn't complete the comeback against goaltender Tuukka Rask. The Finnish sensation allowed

one goal in the shootout while his teammates beat Ryan Miller on two of four attempts. David

Krejci scored the winner.

The loss dropped the Sabres to 0-4-1 in the last five games and 2-7-2 in the last 11.

"There were still lapses, and we're not going to get over this until we play a 60-minute

effort," Gaustad said. "There has to be passion all 60 minutes, all four lines, all six D,

from the goaltender out. We're not going to get past this unless everybody buys into it and

everybody does it. We've had a lot of talk in here. Talk's got to be over.

"This isn't what we wanted. We want to move forward as a team. I'm not going to point

fingers at anybody. I'm going to look at myself first and try to move forward with a good

practice [today] and our next game [Thursday in Carolina]."

Though the Sabres were not in the mood for moral victories, they could have found them.

"In the last 40 [minutes] we served it," Ruff said.

Gaustad challenged Zdeno Chara to a fight, but the 6-foot-9 captain declined. Rivet fought

Shawn Thornton, while Adam Mair dropped the gloves with Milan Lucic despite breaking his nose

Saturday in Columbus.

"You've got to give him a lot of credit," Ruff said. "I thought he had Lucic on the ropes

there for a couple, but it doesn't take much when you've got a broken nose to get that

bleeding again. For him to get in there and get after it, I thought it was great.

"There were some players that were better. There were some other guys that have to elevate

their games, too."