Buffalo centre Derek Roy, right, is greeted by teammate Jason Pominville after scoring against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night at Rexall Place. (Jimmy Jeong/Canadian Press)

One could make the argument that the Edmonton Oilers are still on vacation.

Playing for the first time since this past weekend's all-star break, the Oilers suffered their worst defeat of the season as they endured a 10-2 mugging at the hands of the streaking Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night at Rexall Place.

Winger Drew Stafford led the Buffalo onslaught with his second career hat trick. Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy each chipped in with a goal and a pair of assists.

Roy has been one of the hottest scorers in the NHL the last month, netting eight goals and 16 points since the new year.

"It was a debacle of monumental proportions. There were plenty of areas of our game plan that could be criticized," Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish said.

"The effort tonight, we were just chasing our tails all night. We're not as masochistic as it may seem watching that game. We have to execute our game plan a whole lot better than we did."

The Sabres (25-18-5) posted their most impressive victory of the season, chasing Edmonton goaltender Dwayne Roloson out of the game with three goals on their first eight shots.

The Sabres have now won four of their last four games.

Goaltender Ryan Miller was sharp from the onset with 36 saves, including 18 in the first period.

Edmonton fans predictably gave their team a rousing chorus of boos as the final seconds of the game ticked away.

"It was frustrating and embarrassing right from the beginning of the game," Oilers defenceman Tom Gilbert said. "We obviously weren't ready to play. If you are not ready to execute, a team like this is going to expose you in every aspect of the game, and that's exactly what happened to us tonight."

A thrashing on home ice is nothing new to the Oilers (24-20-3), who were hammered 9-2 by the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 16.

"We didn't think that this could happen to us again," Edmonton assistant captain Steve Staios said. "Especially the way that we were playing of late. Hopefully the experience we have from trying to shake it off last time is the way to do it because we started playing better and got ourselves into a playoff position. You can't sugarcoat how tough a night it was, but we have to put this behind us quickly and move on."

The loss also snapped Edmonton's three-game winning streak.

Erik Cole and Robert Nilsson scored for the Oilers. Backup Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, in net for the first time since Nov. 30, made 22 saves on 29 shots.

10 seconds to breakdown

Edmonton's nightmare began immediately as confusion between Lubomir Visnovsky and Ales Hemsky led to Buffalo's first goal just 10 seconds into the opening period.

Vanek intercepted the puck and slid it to Stafford, who beat Roloson for his 10th goal of the season.

Before Oilers fans could exhale, the Sabres jumped out to a 2-0 lead 1:01 later when Clarke MacArthur emerged from behind Edmonton's net to feed an oncoming Nathan Paetsch.

Roy effectively put the game out of reach at 10:17 of the first, firing a shot between the legs of Roloson. Still shell-shocked by the early deficit, MacTavish replaced Roloson with Deslauriers.

Buffalo's early advantage through the first 20 minutes was surprising considering Oiler shooters directed 18 shots at Miller.

The Oilers' change in goaltender made no difference as the Sabres continued to pound Edmonton early in the second.

Hecht put Buffalo up 4-0 just 2:02 into the period by sweeping the puck under Deslauriers.

The Oilers momentarily slowed down the slaughter after Cole sent a wrist shot by Miller on the power play at 13:23.

But Buffalo quickly responded with a power-play marker less than a minute later. Centre Tim Connolly took a pass from Vanek and snapped a shot behind Deslauriers.

"It was one of those nights where we caught them flat," Buffalo head coach Lindy Ruff said. "I've been behind the bench on a team where you have a night like that and it's tough. The harder they tried it seemed like the worse it was getting."

The Oilers couldn't recover, allowing five more goals while Nilsson scored Edmonton's only tally in the third period.

Edmonton will attempt to regain its winning ways, playing the fourth game of a six-game homestand on Friday against its division rivals the Minnesota Wild.

With files from the Canadian Press