ARLINGTON, Va. — Lindy Ruff didn’t like the way the Buffalo Sabres skated or competed against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night. So on Friday afternoon, he put them through an intense practice ahead of their Saturday night game against the Washington Capitals.

Thursday night against the Senators wasn’t a one-off. The Sabres have been in a bit of a funk for the last couple of weeks. They are 2-2-2 in their last six games, and the loss to the Senators left Mattias Samuelsson thinking they played “too cute” and Ruff noting that the Senators competed harder than the Sabres did. Considering the Sabres had a chance to clinch a playoff spot and end the franchise’s league-record postseason drought with a win, hearing about a lack of urgency is hardly encouraging. But after sleeping it off and watching video, Ruff had a more pragmatic view of the team’s situation.

“I thought we were slow,” Ruff said. “I don’t want to make excuses, but maybe the pressure of being there, just a little bit of that, caught up to the guys. Today was about just getting up to pace, playing fast, playing our game. I thought the energy was great. I thought the pace was great. I thought we skated better today than we did last night.”

Here’s another way to look at the Sabres’ last six games: They have a 54-percent expected goal share at five-on-five during that stretch and have a similar share of the scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances. Their shooting percentage, which is 10.31 percent at five-on-five this season, has dropped to 7.97 the last six games. The games the Sabres are playing have all been close, and lulls like this happen.

The Sabres are going to clinch the playoffs at some point. And they will likely finish somewhere in the top three of the Atlantic Division. But where they end up within that is up in the air, with the Montreal Canadiens just two points behind. After four months of being on top of the league, the Sabres have hit a bump in the road, but there’s still time to get back on track.

“I kind of love the adversity,” Sabres goalie Alex Lyon said. “You have to love the adversity to a degree. As long as I’ve been in the NHL, that was the longest sustained run of success that I’ve ever experienced as a group. That’s extremely rare. We just have to keep sight of that and remember when we were in September and October and November, there were difficult times, so it’s important to remember that as well. It can turn at any second. When momentum shifts, you have to embrace that and grind through that.”

1. Ruff decided to put his lines in a blender for the first time in a while. Here’s how the Sabres looked Friday:

Peyton Krebs – Tage Thompson – Josh Doan
Jason Zucker – Josh Norris – Alex Tuch
Zach Benson – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Jordan Greenway – Tyson Kozak – Beck Malenstyn

Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Dahlin
Bowen Byram – Owen Power
Logan Stanley – Zach Metsa

“I look at our five-on-five scoring, I think it just needs a little freshness,” Ruff said. “The lines have been together a long time. It’s time to tweak them a little bit and let them go out and play.”

Ruff had Tage Thompson and Josh Doan playing together during the team’s first 10-game winning streak in December and got positive results, so there’s a history there. It’s also been a few weeks of a production slump for Ryan McLeod and Josh Norris, so shuffling the middle two lines might help get something going for them.

2. Logan Stanley and Zach Metsa are still Buffalo’s third pair on defense. Thursday was the shakiest game Metsa has played in a long time. It was also his fifth game in seven nights after playing three games in three days last weekend in Rochester. It looks like Ruff is going to stick with that pair for a bit and give them time to get comfortable. It’s been tough to get a proper read on Stanley’s game because he’s played with four different partners in 12 games. But it’s worth noting the Sabres have 60 percent of the high-danger chances and 51 percent of the expected goals during his five-on-five minutes. He’s made mistakes and taken a few too many penalties, but the on-ice results have been solid for a player adjusting to a new system.

3. Every game Stanley and Metsa play is another game that Michael Kesselring is out of the lineup. He’s been upbeat at practice and tried to approach the situation with the right attitude despite the frustration that comes with being scratched for 11 straight games.

“Obviously, the situation is we have nine NHL defensemen,” Kesselring said before the road trip. “Do I think I’m going to be a top four D in this league? I do believe that. I think I played through a little too much this year, and it is what it is right now. But this is the hardest I’ve worked all year, and I’ll be ready when I get back in. You can’t be mad. I’ve tried to be smiling in the locker room and stuff like that.”

Kesselring has dealt with early-season knee and ankle injuries that lingered into the second half of the year. But he can still be a big piece of what the Sabres do moving forward. It’s tough to figure out when his next opportunity will come, but Ruff should find a way to get him one before the end of the regular season.

4. Luke Schenn has been a valuable guy to have in the room, even though he’s only played in two games for the Sabres. He’s in the same situation as Kesselring, and it’s good for Kesselring to see how Schenn handles himself as a veteran. Schenn knows his words carry more weight when he’s playing, but he’s found a way to stay involved in whatever way he can. And he’s also confident he can make an impact on the ice.

“The playoffs is not even close to the same game,” Schenn said before the road trip. “You go to the first 30 or 40 regular-season games, and it’s not as physical, it’s a little more playing off the rush. You get into the last 20, 10, five games, it comes down to more one-on-one battles. It’s tighter checking. Playoffs is an extra level of that, and not a lot of guys have experience with it. That’s when I feel like I’m at my best, when it’s just about will and compete and battles and you against your opponent shift after shift for seven games or whatever it takes in a series and four rounds. It’s a different game.”

5. Lyon had the net to himself at practice, which is a strong indication that he’s going to get another start after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen got three starts in a row. Lyon has allowed 10 goals in his last two starts, with a save percentage just above 80 percent. So this was a fine time for a reset, and Lyon seemed to embrace it as a chance to get back on track.

6. After Josh Dunne got one game centering Jordan Greenway and Beck Malenstyn, it looks like Tyson Kozak will get a chance to fill in for the injured Sam Carrick on that fourth line based on practice.

7. The league hasn’t announced clinching scenarios for the weekend, but here’s what it looks like for the Sabres. They can clinch if any of these scenarios happen:

• The Sabres beat Washington in any fashion.

• The Red Wings lose in regulation against the Rangers on Saturday.

• The Red Wings lose in overtime, and the Sabres get at least a point against Washington.

If the Red Wings win against the Rangers, the Sabres can also clinch with an overtime loss in the following scenario with the Senators: The Senators lose in regulation, and the Sabres get at least a point against Washington.