Dead last in the Eastern Conference with two wins in their previous 10 games, injured at forward and with a rookie goalie making his fourth NHL appearance, the Buffalo Sabres are as close as it gets to a free space on a bingo card.

The Edmonton Oilers, unfortunately, are as close as it gets to a frustrating, inconsistent, lifeless disappointment.

And when these two floundering clubs went head-to-head Monday, it wasn’t even close

Just when it looked like the Oilers might be figuring things out, they went out and stumbled their way to a 5-1 defeat, showing everyone that they haven’t.

Under the N: Not good enough. Not by a long shot.

In bowing down to the lowly Sabres, the rudderless Oilers still can’t find the formula that made them Stanley Cup contenders the last two years.

Contenders? Right now they aren’t even a playoff team, sitting 10th in the Western Conference (11th if you go by points percentage).

What’s going wrong? Even they don’t know.

“It’s hard to say right now,” said Vasily Podkolzin, one of the few Oilers who showed some spirit in this one. “But we better figure it out, how to win games, as soon as possible because we’re not happy with what’s going on right now.”

Nor should they be. It’s 21 games into the season and the Oilers still haven’t won three games in a row.

And with the Sabres ripe for the picking, Edmonton folded.

“After their power play goal we let up a little bit, whether it was confidence or emotion, we just didn’t have the same jump as we had starting the game,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch.

“After that, Buffalo played with that emotion and speed and were the better team in the second half of the game.”

It was all the usual stuff that sent Edmonton down to another defeat.

Fall behind: Buffalo scores first to lead 1-0 at the first intermission.

Traditional second period lull: Oilers were outshot 11-4 in the first 12 minutes of the middle frame and gave up two quick goals to fall behind 3-1.

Knoblauch loads up his top line and expects them to save the day: They can’t.

With only one power play, the Oilers had to rely on their five-on-five game, which ranks among the worst in the league. They lost the even-strength battle 3-1 after Buffalo opened the scoring on the man advantage and closed it with an empty netter.

“We ran into a pretty good goalie over there, he’s playing well,” said defenceman Brett Kulak. “And we’re not really playing to the level we want to get to.”

It’s been a recurring theme all season — play well for a few minutes, launch some furious comebacks, grind out some points — but even on those nights there is very little passion and too many lapses in concentration.

Everyone keeps waiting for them to snap out of it and put some solid games together, but it’s not happening. After goaltender Stuart Skinner stole them an overtime win in Carolina, they responded with a 5-1 loss to Buffalo.

“We’re all feeling that (lack of consistency),” said Kulak. “It’s just been spurts of playing like we want to play, and it’s just not enough. We have to put in full 60-minute efforts.”

Turning the cheek

Lack of emotion remains a key issue, resulting in those long, lifeless lulls that can last 20 minutes or more. Starting slow, sleep walking for extended periods and then hitting the gas midway through the third period is no way to live.

The Oilers used to have some jam; they used to have some intense, physical players who could light a fire under the team when it needed a boost, but management neglected that aspect of the game and now they have nobody.

Other teams know it, too. The Philadelphia Flyers did whatever they felt like doing to Connor McDavid last Wednesday. They threw him down, hit him late, got the stick up high, and none of the Oilers even looked at them funny.

Buffalo also got rough with McDavid, with Peyton Krebs sending him face-first into the boards. Vasily Podkolzin stepped up at the end of the second period for a brief and minor scuffle with Krebs, but that was it. There was no red flag in front of the bull effect on the Oilers. It’s a trade that teams will take all day long if it means getting their licks in on the Oilers captain.

It’s one thing to be soft and highly-skilled, but it’s quite another to be soft and sitting near the bottom of the league in five-on-five goals per game.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com