Ruff 'almost lost for words' as Sabres' winless streak hits 10

Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff is determined to stop the bleeding after Buffalo's winless streak hit 10 games with Sunday's 5-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"I'm almost lost for words, obviously," he said. "It's on me to solve this. This is the toughest solve I've been around. It is on me to get these guys in the right place and win a hockey game. And nobody else, just me."

The Sabres were in control with a 3-1 edge at the midway point of the second period, but the Maple Leafs responded by scoring three goals in a 2:31 span to take a one-goal lead heading into the third period.

"We were clicking on almost everything until they got the first goal," Ruff said. "It just seemed like it turned."

The bench boss called a timeout after Toronto's flurry in an attempt to settle the Sabres down.

"Just (to) say, 'Listen, we can do this. This is hard right now. We've got to do it together, but we gotta believe in how we need to play to get the job done,'" Ruff explained.

Buffalo was unable to get anything going in the third period as the Maple Leafs outshot their division rivals 19-7 in the final 20 minutes. John Tavares iced the contest with an empty-netter to complete the hat trick.

The Sabres haven't won a game since Nov. 23 against the San Jose Sharks. They were in third place in the Atlantic Division with an 11-9-1 record and two points away from catching the Florida Panthers for the No. 2 spot before their current skid.

Buffalo is 11-16-4 on the season, which has the team in seventh in the division and 29th in the league. Only four teams - the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, Sharks, and Montreal Canadiens - own a worse points percentage than the Sabres' .419 clip.

"Pretty shitty, honestly," forward Alex Tuch said of the feeling in the room, per The Buffalo News' Mike Harrington. "Losing 10 in a row, there's no good feelings. You've just got to work."

The Sabres haven't made the playoffs since 2011. They're six points behind Ottawa for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and the Senators have one game in hand.

Buffalo's next chance to pull out of its nosedive will come Tuesday against the Canadiens.