There will be no medals of any color given out for the performance the Buffalo Sabres put out

Wednesday in HSBC Arena.

Forget gold, silver or bronze. If this was Christmas time, you'd be looking at lumps of

coal.

The Sabres were particularly dreadful over the final 40 minutes of their 3-1 loss to the

Washington Capitals that spoiled goaltender Ryan Miller's post-Olympic coming-home party. The

crowd of 18,690 gave Miller a rousing standing ovation before the game and he was the best

Sabre on the ice, making 37 saves against the NHL's No. 1 team.

Of course, it wasn't hard to be the best player in blue and gold.

The Buffalo offense was a mess, consistently turning the puck over in the neutral zone and

at the Washington blue line. Buffalo was outshot overall, 40-24 — and the count was

29-13 over the final 40 minutes.

"If we continue down this path, it's not the way to do it. It's been proven," Miller said

in calm but very measured tones. "If we're too thick-headed to let that sink in, we deserve

what we're getting. I'm going to make sure the attitude around here is going to be right. We

need to strive to get better, we need to strive to be winners. We can't just hope to

get by."

The Sabres are just 1-6-2 in their last nine games and have dropped back-to-back contests

coming out of the Olympic break. They remain one point behind Ottawa in a battle for the

Northeast Division lead that they don't look like they deserve to be a part of.

In their first home appearance in more than two weeks, you'd think there would have been

more energy but there simply wasn't. Coach Lindy Ruff seemed to promise there would be Friday

night when Philadelphia comes to town in what will be the debut of newly acquired forward

Raffi Torres.

"It's my job to get them ready to play," Ruff said. "I've got a day and a half to have them

ready for Philly and that falls on my shoulders. We didn't play well tonight, broke down

system wise, got away from playing the way we need to play. I've got 36 hours to get them

ready.

"It might be time to shuffle the deck. Shuffle the deck with all the lines, give everybody

a new start and get away from where we're at."

For all the chills and thrills that were produced over two weeks in Vancouver, this one

produced mostly snores.

Jochen Hecht scored Buffalo's only goal, pulling the Sabres even at 1-1 with a quick snap

shot at 16:23 of the second period. It came a minute after Jason Chimera's slapshot from the

point beat Miller to break a scoreless tie and put Washington in front.

You'd think the Sabres would have built some momentum from the goal, which was Hecht's 14th

of the year and 400th NHL point. Nope. It was simply a temporary reprieve from Buffalo's

offensive frustration.

Washington had a 16-4 edge in shots in the second period and won the game in the third on

defenseman Mike Green's goal from the slot with 9:32 left and Boyd Gordon's empty-netter with

40 seconds to go.

"We've got to be patient in that situation," Hecht said. "Get the puck in deep and wait for

our opportunities. When we turned it over, they took control of the game."

"Our second period was a great example of how we don't want to play," added Jason

Pominville. "We handed them opportunities, weren't good at the blue line. We're not going to

score many goals when we're handing them rushes and are always chasing after the puck."

Miller is the one player always able to quickly analyze his team's strengths and

shortcomings. He pointed out how the Sabres followed their system wisely for the season's

first three months, when they won 30 of their first 47 games.

"Right now, we're just looking for an easier way to play our system but it doesn't exist,"

Miller said. "Our system is built to be worked at and you have to work it hard. It becomes

difficult to sustain sometimes over the course of a whole season but we should have the energy

coming off a break like this."

The Sabres hope Torres, who instantly becomes their leading goal scorer with 19, can add

some grit and some offense to reverse their skidding fortunes.

"I think he can help. He's a power forward that's having a good year," Ruff said. "He's a

bull around the net, he's got a great shot. He'll have a little adjustment period but he's

going to help us."

The Sabres were without center Paul Gaustad, who suffered an undisclosed upper-body injury

Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Ruff said Gaustad would be out at least a week with what appeared to be

an injury to his right hand or wrist in a third-period fight with Penguins forward Mike Rupp.