Sabres can't afford many more losses

The Sabres have 27 games left. Goaltender Ryan Miller figures if they want to make the playoffs, they need to win about 20 of them.

Buffalo fell three places in the standings with Saturday's 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay. The Sabres started the day in 11th but ended it in 14th, a tough fall with less than two months to play.

"We did it to ourselves," Miller said. "We're just going to have to take care of our games. We know we don't have many losses that we can put out there anymore. As I see it, there's probably seven or eight losses available for us out of the next (27) games, to be realistic. That's just the way it is. We have to regroup, recover and learn what we can."

The Sabres close a four-game homestand Tuesday against New Jersey. They'll need to start better than they did in their last two. They fell into a 2-0 hole against Dallas on Friday before winning 3-2 in a shootout. They again faced a 2-0 deficit against Tampa Bay, but this time there was no comeback.

"Every night is a must-win for us," captain Jason Pominville said. "We've got to find ways to get points. Our start wasn't good enough, and we didn't deserve points."

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