Evander Kane didn't mince words.

"We suck trying to score goals," the Buffalo Sabres winger told Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. "The way you score goals is you stay aggressive."

The remark comes after the Sabres led the defending champions Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 on Sunday, only to fall 4-3 in regulation.

The Sabres put 21 shots on the board in the opening frame, but weren't as aggressive in the closing periods, registering 10 shots in the second and 19 in the third.

Buffalo sits five points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild-card spot in the East. Failing to grab any points in Sunday's collapse was a tough blow for an improving squad.

The Sabres, whose 166 goals for ranks 21st in the NHL, have been better since the calendar flipped to 2017, going 14-12-4 in the new year.

As for Kane, there's no question he knows offense. The scoring winger leads the league with 22 even-strength goals since Dec. 1, while he's tallied 35 points in 54 games this season.

Kane has one year remaining on his contract, carrying a $5.25-million cap hit.

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