The Buffalo Sabres are off to a rough start as the team looks to end a 15-year playoff drought this season.

Buffalo is off to an 0-3-0 start and have been outscored 10-2 over their first three games. The pressure is already heading towards a boiling point just one week into the season ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Sabres star Tage Thompson tried to downplay the team’s long history of recent struggles and keep the focus on the present after a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.

“Can’t keep looking back – last three games, last four seasons, last 14 seasons, whatever you want to do. We’ve just got to keep our sights set on what’s next,” Thompson said.

That history, however, is working against the Sabres and could lead to early roster changes if things don’t turn around quickly.

“I would say if this was anywhere else, we wouldn’t be even discussing it probably at this point,” TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston said Tuesday on Insider Trading. “But because Buffalo carries around the weight of that long playoff run and the way those three games have gone, two of them at home scoring just two goals. If you talk to management or coaching staff, they’re going to say, look, the team itself just hasn’t played well enough. They’ve always been contending with some injury issues as well.

“But the heat is really already up on the Sabres, even though we are just coming to the one-week mark of the season with the way things have started. And they have two tough home games this week on home ice. We’ll be watching very closely to see how things go there, because if they don’t start winning some games, certainly the feeling is Kevyn Adams, the general manager, and everyone in that front office, there’s pressure to do something.”

In their third home game of the early season, the Sabres will face a Senators team that took a step forward into the playoffs for the first time since 2017 last season after a lengthy rebuild.

Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin, who voiced his frustration with the team’s lack of success last season, challenged his teammates to be better after Monday night.

“[This start] is not acceptable,” Dahlin said. “It’s not good enough, a lot of the areas. Better start today, worse ending. Not good on the power play, good [penalty kill], goaltending. I mean, we can’t catch a break there. We’ve got to get out of this [nonsense].”

Buffalo is dealing with injuries to forward Josh Norris and off-season addition Michael Kesselring, but head coach Lindy Ruff shut the door on blaming injuries for another run of losses.

“Everybody deals with injuries,” Ruff said. “We’ve got players that need to produce for us, can’t make excuses for [it]. We’ve got to do the right thing, and you’ve got to be able to win games, even with injuries.”

Ruff, who the Sabres brought back as head coach ahead of last season, was behind the bench with Buffalo last made the playoffs in 2011.