BUFFALO - The best thing that happened to the Buffalo Sabres Wednesday night is they packed their bags, headed straight to the airport and boarded a plane bound for Chicago where they’ll start a season-long six-game road trip Thursday night.

Tampa Bay strutted into KeyBank Center and toyed with the Sabres for the first half of the game in building a 4-0 lead, held off a push by Buffalo, then ran away at the end to secure an 8-3 victory, Buffalo’s third loss in its now concluded and disappointing four-game homestand.

That makes six losses in 10 games at home and that alone is why the Sabres are buried in sixth place in the Atlantic Division, eight points behind frontrunning Boston, and this was utterly embarrassing as goalies Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Colten Ellis stopped just 14 of 22 shots.

“I think we're comfortable on the road for a reason, and we've been good on the road in the past,” Josh Doan said. “I think it's one of those things where we’ve got to be better at home and find ways to win at home. But this is an opportunity for us to go play six games on the road and try to get this thing going in the right direction coming back for Thanksgiving.”

That’s right, the Sabres aren’t at home until the night before and the night after Thanksgiving, and these next two weeks are going to be hugely important for them if they want to stay within shouting distance of a playoff position. Sure, it’s early to be thinking about that, but every point matters in the brutal Atlantic Division.

During their remarkable run through the second half of the 2025-26 season, the Sabres beat the Lightning twice at home in a span of a month, and if there was one game that had fans believing something special was brewing, it was the 8-7 thriller on March 8 when they overcame a 7-5 deficit with three goals in the final nine minutes in what may have been the game of the year in the NHL.

For a brief moment Wednesday, it looked like another big rally was imminent as Tage Thompson’s goal 33 seconds into the third period made it 4-3, but longtime Sabres killer Nikita Kucherov sucked the air out of the building when he scored a natural hat trick in the span of 13 minutes to turn it into a laugher.

Sabres had a terrible finish to first period

After an evenly played first 18-plus minutes, things took a bleak turn in the final 71 seconds of the first period and not surprisingly, given how poorly the Sabres have played at home all season, there was no coming back.

The trouble began when the Lightning’s fourth line enforcer, Scott Sabourin, scored the first goal of the game and right there you got the feeling this might not be the Sabres’ night.

Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay’s leading goal scorer and point producer, was still on the ice with Sabourin and fellow fourth-liner Conor Geekie and the crafty winger rushed in on the right side before feathering a nice pass to Geekie. Luukkonen made a pad save on Geekie, but Connor Timmins couldn’t clear the rebound and Sabourin was right there to bury it for his first goal of the season. It was also Geekie’s first assist.

Just 49 seconds later Doan took a delay of game penalty when he carelessly lifted the puck over the glass and it took the Lightning all of 16 seconds to make it 2-0. Charle-Edouard D'Astous zipped a pass to the right side of the net to Guentzel who immediately found John Carlson just off the left post and with Timmins losing coverage, he was all alone to pump it past Luukkonen who was slow getting across the crease.

“Don't let the frustration of not scoring lead to giving teams other opportunities,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think if we stay patient, just go out of that period 0–0, played a good period. Played a good period.”

Things didn’t get any better for Timmins

It was imperative that the Sabres get the next goal to have a chance, but just 4:33 into the middle period that dream died and once again, Timmins played a role as Tampa Bay took a 3-0 lead.

Carlson fired a shot from the middle blue line that didn’t get through but Hagel outbattled Timmins for possession 10 feet outside the blue paint and quickly whipped a shot along the ice past Luukkonen who didn’t have much of a chance.

At least Timmins wasn’t involved in the fourth goal which came at 13:02 of the second. Sam O’Reilly’s stretch pass sent Guentzel in on a rush with Yanni Gourde and it became a 2-on-1 because Mattias Samuelsson’s weak back check allowed Gourde to pull away and he was all alone to re-direct Guentzel’s centering pass, another goal that could not be blamed on Luukkonen.

“You can blame the defense. It's the defensive structure that broke down,” Ruff said. “Sometimes that's a forward that has to fill and replace, which we got so good at. Sometimes it's a defenseman. We weren't good as a group.”

Sabres gave themselves a chance, briefly

At 15:54 of the second, the Sabres finally broke through while the second power play unit was on the ice late in a man advantage. Josh Norris slid a cross-ice pass to Ryan McLeod on the left side and he wristed one and Doan, parked in front, was able to steer it past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

And then with just 27.3 seconds left in the period, the Sabres worked a beautiful rush to cut their deficit to two. Noah Ostlund skated through center, fed Jack Quinn on the right wing and he quickly gave it right back which created a 2-on-1. Ostlund wasted no time backhanding a perfect feed to Jason Zucker steaming in from the left and he one-timed it past Vasilevskiy.

Nikita Kucherov is a hockey assassin

They crept within 4-3 just 33 seconds into the third period when Thompson blasted a one-timer from the right circle off a feed from Peyton Krebs top shelf over Vasilevskiy’s blocker, and then the Sabres nearly tied it with a great shift by Quinn who fired four shots in a dizzying span of 15 seconds.

The Lightning survived that and suddenly Kucherov was on his way up ice on a breakaway as all five Sabres were caught in the offensive zone. Olen Zellweger caught him and drew a holding penalty, but Kucherov still managed to beat Luukkonen with a backhander, a terrible goal, and Ruff yanked the goalie hoping that Colten Ellis could provide a spark.

He didn’t because less than three minutes later, Anthony Cirelli beat Ostlund on a draw, the puck came back to Carlson who quickly fired a cross ice pass to Kucherov who unloaded a one-timer past Ellis for a 6-3 lead.

And to cap things off, Kucherov completed a natural hat trick with 5:47 remaining, one-timing a feed from the same place where he scored his second goal, and a disgruntled crowd streamed to the exits, so they missed Hagel’s tack-on goal a minute later.

“He scores three goals in the third period, that's what he does,” Doan said of Kucherov who now has 26 goals in 44 career games against Buffalo. “He's one of the best in the world for a reason. But at the same time, we gotta find ways to manage. It's 4-3 and we're all over him, and the puck gets out and he gets a breakaway, and he's pretty good at those.”