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Nolan: Sabres not measuring up

NHL, Buffalo Sabres

It took the Anaheim Ducks just 18 seconds to draw the game's first penalty Monday night.

It may not have taken much longer for Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan to have seen enough.

"That was like an NHL team playing against a peewee team," Nolan told the Buffalo News after the Sabres' 5-1 home loss to Anaheim. "They dominated us from start to finish. ... They were two steps ahead."

Harsh criticism, perhaps. But the numbers back up Nolan's assessment. With Monday's beating, the Sabres (0-3-0) have been outscored 11-3 in their past two games and 9-1 over the past four periods.

And it could be worse: Buffalo has been outshot by nearly 25 a game, including 44-12 by the Ducks.

"You just try to shoot the puck down the ice 15 times, you might hit the net 10 times," Nolan, who is 17-39-9 since replacing Ron Rolston last November, told the News. "It was bad.

"Out of position, not strong enough, not committed enough, not smart enough, no desperation. That probably to me is the most frustrating."

A bright side for Sabres fans, as the News pointed out: The 18,912 in attendance Monday at First Niagara Center got a free "OneBuffalo" T-shirt.

All backup goaltender Michal Neuvirth got was a workout.

"It was a tough one to swallow," he said. "We've all got to be 100 percent better."

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