Centreless Leafs out of sync in loss to last-place Sabres
Ugly showing gives Nolan victory in first game back behind Buffalo’s bench
BUFFALO, N.Y. All Randy Carlyle could do was shake his head and smile.
The Toronto Maple Leafs coach has seen a lot during his playing days and years behind the bench. This season alone, he has watched one of his forwards receive a 10-game suspension for leaving the bench to join a fight and his goaltender accidentally redirect a clearing attempt into his own net.
But he had to admit, “this was a new one.”
Carlyle was talking about the gaping hole in the middle of Toronto’s roster. With Nazem Kadri serving the first game of a three-game suspension and Tyler Bozak and Dave Bolland out with injuries, the Leafs were missing their top three centres for Friday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
It was a scenario that the Leafs coach never expected he would have to prepare for.
“Coaching brings you experiences and you can never predict (what’s going to happen),” said Carlyle. “You have Plan A,B,C and D in the drawer and we’re at E and F right now.”
Plan F was more or less a failure on Friday night, as the Leafs lost 3-1 to the Sabres. With the teams playing again on Saturday night in Toronto, Carlyle was asked if it was time to shake up the lineup again and go to a Plan G.
“I don’t have anybody else,” he said after the loss, in which a reporter wondered if moving James van Riemsdyk from centre back to the wing was a possibility moving forward. “You’re a smart enough guy to figure that out. What else do you want me to do, put a defenceman at forward? Is that what you suggest I do?”
Indeed, with Kadri out for two more games and Bozak not yet ready to return, the only thing Carlyle and the Leafs can do is ride this out.
That means relying on their goaltending and hope that they get enough scoring from unlikely sources like minorleague call-up Trevor Smith.
“One thing we could do is shoot the puck and try not to be so fine,” said Carlyle. “It seems like we’re trying to pick the top corner or trying to pick spots where we should be concentrating on getting a quicker release and getting pucks to the net and get that second or third opportunity.”
It was an emotional win for the last-place Sabres, who were playing their first game in 16 years with Ted Nolan behind the bench and with Pat LaFontaine effectively replacing GM Darcy Regier.
From the beginning, Nolan seemed to push all the right buttons, as Buffalo outshot Toronto 10-5 in the first period. No goals were scored, but for a team that had entered the game outscored 27-3 in first periods, it was a minor victory.
The Leafs, who had been averaging 3.46 goals per game, have scored just five goals in the last five games. During that span, van Riemsdyk has gone without a point. And with no other options, Toronto has no choice but to sweat it out.
“I definitely feel more comfortable,” van Riemsdyk said of moving from wing to play centre. “Obviously it’s still a work in progress.”