RALEIGH, N.C. — Think you're frustrated about the Buffalo Sabres' February funk? You've

got nothing on Ryan Miller.

Miller is heading to the Olympics in Vancouver next week but he should get a gold medal in

the telling-like-it-is category after Thursday's 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes

in the RBC Center.

The 'Canes won the game on Sergei Samsonov's tap-in at 1:47 of the extra session, a play

set up when Steve Montador blew a tire rounding the Buffalo net and gave the puck away to

Brandon Sutter. A quick pass to Samsonov created a tap-in that Miller had no chance on as the

Sabres' skid hit six games (0-4-2).

The loss dropped the Sabres out of first place in the Northeast Division for the first time

since early October, one point behind red-hot Ottawa. After most of the players had departed

the locker room and coach Lindy Ruff had already met reporters, Miller issued a blistering

state of a team that's blown a 13-point lead in its division in less than a month.

"It's definitely time to start acting upon it," Miller said, his eyes flaring with rage as

he measured his words. "We're not going to coast into the playoffs. We keep up this pace,

we're not even going to make the playoffs. This is getting ridiculous. So you've just

got to wake up."

Audio: Ryan Miller speaks

There was plenty for Miller to not like in this one as the Sabres blew a 2-0 first-period

lead and needed Derek Roy's goal with 7:07 left, his second of the night, just to get one

point.

The penalty killers, ranked No. 1 in the NHL, fell asleep on coverage twice in the final

four minutes of the first period as the Hurricanes scored a pair of goals after penalties on

Craig Rivet and Toni Lydman to pull into a 2-2 tie. The second one, by Ray Whitney, came with

1.1 seconds left in the period and clearly put the Sabres on their heels the rest of the

night.

"We took it as another negative thing happening and "Woe is me.' " Miller said. "It's not

the attitude we need right now. I'm not sure how that developed."

Carolina took a 3-2 lead on Stephane Yelle's slap shot past Miller at 9:55 of the second

and Miller had to make several more saves to keep Buffalo close.

"We've got to stop playing like fragile little kids out there," he said. "We had a two-goal

lead, took two penalties that weren't exactly necessary, got rattled and had a bad second

period. Then we had to scramble in the third period to make a game of it."

What really rankled Miller was a three-on-none break — yes, three-on-none —

that the Hurricanes got just before the Yelle goal.

The five Sabres on the ice (Rivet, Chris Butler, Tim Kennedy, Thomas Vanek and Mike

Grier) all went to the bench on a change when the puck barely got over the Carolina blue line.

The 'Canes turned it around into an almost-never-seen odd-man rush but Miller stopped Tuomo

Ruutu and Patrick Dwyer's rebound went wide.

"I haven't had one of those I don't think in my pro career," Miller said. "That was

unacceptable as far as focus. I don't know. Hope I never see one of those again."

"They just wanted to get off the ice, they didn't want to get caught [on the ice] long,"

said coach Lindy Ruff, who also admitted he thought his team got fragile mentally in the

period. "It was a race to get off. That really isn't mental. It's get me off before something

happens."

Miller is hardly blameless and he knows that. He's 0-3-2 with a 3.54 goals-against average

in February, which has to make USA Hockey's domos a little nervous about their goaltending.

"If it's not one thing, it's another thing," Miller said. "If it's the forwards are off,

the "D' are off and I'm off, it's all not clicking right now. No one is making up for each

other."

The Sabres have one game left before the Olympic break, Saturday's visit from San Jose. The

numbers are ugly: 2-7-3 in their last 12 games and 0-5-2 in their last seven on the road. In

fact, they've won just twice in regulation in the last 16.

"I've been [ticked] off for weeks, months," Miller said. "I don't think we've been playing

well enough for a long time. We've been getting away with it. I don't know. We just need to

get our act together and it could have started tonight. But we got rattled."