BUFFALO, N.Y. — A miserable trip that began with surrendering seven goals ended the same way.

The Detroit Red Wings continued to struggle without their captain, continued to gift their opponent goals and, finally, continued to lessen their chances of righting themselves in the standings. There was no fight in them Tuesday at KeyBank Center, where they were lit up by the Buffalo Sabres to the tune of a 7-3 rout.

Losers of six straight, the Wings (33-26-6) dropped out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They are tied with the New York Islanders at 72 points, but the Isles have a game in hand on Detroit. The Wings return home for two games now, hosting the Arizona Coyotes Thursday night and the Sabres on Saturday afternoon.

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The Wings had had two days off coming into Tuesday's game, time to reset after enduring a trip that began with a 7-2 loss in Colorado and continued with a 4-0 loss at Arizona and 5-3 loss at Vegas. The Wings played hard against the Golden Knights but none of that carried into Buffalo. From the start it was all Sabres, who chased goalie Alex Lyon after 15:29 and then poked holes in his replacement, James Reimer.

It was still 4-1 when Joe Veleno left early in the second period after getting hit in the head by a puck. Veleno had moved up in the lineup with Dylan Larkin (lower body) sidelined at least through mid-March.

Ben Chiarot had Detroit's first goal, to make it 2-1 with 7:23 left in the first, but he and defense partner Jeff Petry had an especially rough outing: They were on the ice for five of Buffalo's goals. Lucas Raymond (a power play score to make it 6-2 midway through the second) and Jake Walman (the final score, late in the third) had the other Detroit goals.

Dicey start

There was no confidence in the Wings' game when the puck dropped, and it didn't take long for the Sabres to capitalize. Alex Tuch made it 1-0 just 67 seconds in, going around Chiarot and beating Lyon on a breakaway. Tyson Jost put the puck in Detroit's net shortly before the three-minute mark, but the Wings successfully challenged the play was offside. Next came having to kill off a penalty to David Perron. The period was only at the midpoint when Bowen Byram made it 2-0.

Spark doused

The Wings gave themselves a little hope when Chiarot finished a setup by Raymond (Jonatan Berggren got the second assist in his second game since being recalled from Grand Rapids) at 12:37, still in the first period, but the Sabres crushed that hope when Zach Benson scored 23 seconds later. Jeff Skinner followed up at 15:29, making it four goals on 13 shots. That was it for Lyon, who was relieved by Reimer. It wasn't so much a reflection on Lyon as on his teammates; the Sabres could easily have had a couple more goals given the offensive chances they were gifted.

Sorry second

The damage mounted in the second period as the Wings failed to offer much resistance. Connor Clifton scored at 4:27, and Byram netted his second of the game with a rebound goal at 9:05. Raymond scored from in front of the net when he took a pass from Robby Fabbri and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen at 9:29, but JJ Peterka came aright back and scored at 13:49. When the Wings went on their third power play of the period, with four minutes to go, the Sabres were the ones who had the puck for most of what was a sorry two-minute stretch for the Wings.

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings too bland in 7-3 loss to Buffalo Sabres to end trip