VANCOUVER — The explosive offence that the Vancouver Canucks displayed just two nights prior was nowhere to be found against Buffalo.
Robin Lehner made 30 saves for his second straight shutout, and the streaking Sabres blanked Vancouver 4-0 on Thursday to send the Canucks into the all-star break kicking themselves for a lack of consistency.
Vancouver laid a decisive 6-2 beating on the visiting Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, with the bulk of the scoring coming early in the game.
That kind of effort seemed like a distant memory Thursday, as Vancouver came out flat in the first and quickly fell behind 1-0 on Sam Reinhart's goal four minutes into the game.
"That's disappointing," said Daniel Sedin. "I thought we had a really good game against L.A. and we expected to be as good tonight. We weren't."
Vancouver head coach Travis Green was "disheartened" to see his team come out with a lackluster effort after such a big win.
"We're not a good enough team to play 45 minutes and I'm pretty sure our players know that," said Green. "We definitely had a letdown after a big emotional win in our last game and I'm not happy about it."
Nicholas Baptiste, Kyle Okposo and Johan Larsson also scored for the suddenly defensive-minded Sabres (14-22-9), who have won three straight games for the first time this season, coming off a 5-0 win in Edmonton and 2-1 victory in Calgary.
"We've got to start building something here for the rest of the season... start getting our identity and our culture together," said Lehner. "We look back at these three games, we have a good system in play and if we stick to it when I doubt, when we're tired or hemmed in, it's going to help us and it did that the last three games."
The Canucks played better in the second, controlling the play and getting the crowd back into it with several quality scoring chances, including an all-alone opportunity at Lehner's doorstep that Brock Boeser fanned on.
But it was Buffalo making it 2-0 at 12:49 when a Jake Virtanen turnover led to Baptiste coolly backhanding the puck under Jacob Markstrom's pad for his first this season.
Markstrom, who made 22 saves for Vancouver, questioned what happened to the team that thrashed the Kings.
"It's very frustrating, we're playing good, like a couple nights ago," he said, "and I don't know if the guys get loose or too relaxed and think we're a great hockey team that can go half speed … and it includes myself, I need to come up with two good games in a row and bail my teammates out."
Lehner's best saves came in the third when he got his body in front of a close Henrik Sedin shot to keep the Canucks scoreless with just over seven minutes left. Soon after, Vancouver went on the power play and Lehner was pressed into action, stopping a Loui Eriksson tip and a mad scramble in his crease.
Buffalo got some insurance with just over three minutes left to play. Marco Scandella's shot squeezed through Markstorm's pads and Okposo was right there to knock it in and make it 3-0. Larsson scored an empty-netter.
"We didn't give them too much defensively, we were really tight to our net, and we tried to protect Robin as best we could," said Sabres coach Phil Housley. "And when we needed a save Robin was big tonight. We bent but we didn't break and that's' about sticking to the plan."
Notes: Vancouver will be represented in the all-star game by rookie sensation Brock Boeser (24 goals, 43 points), while Buffalo will send forward Jack Eichel (20 goals, 49 points).
Jason Keller, The Canadian Press
