Sabres’ victory caps difficult week for Leafs
Despite rough season, Buffalo still knows how to torment Toronto
POSTMEDIA NEWS
BUFFALO It has been so bad in Buffalo this season that, 26 games into the schedule, only two players on the Sabres roster had been credited with a game-winning goal. And it will not get much better, either, because they only have two games remaining against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
One of those game-winning goals came against the Leafs earlier this month. And another was earned on Friday night, when the Sabres, the worst team in the National Hockey League, earned a 3-2 overtime win over a team slowly sinking toward the wrong side of the playoff divide.
Christian Ehrhoff won the game on a shot from the point 38 seconds into the extra frame, with the puck finding its way through a tangle of legs. It capped a long, difficult week for the Leafs, who are preparing for a long, difficult run in their schedule.
The Sabres might be terrible at NHL hockey, but they remain highly effective at tormenting the Leafs. It was in a pre-season game against Buffalo that David Clarkson left the bench for a brawl, drawing an automatic 10-game suspension from the National Hockey League.
Winger Phil Kessel was also suspended after that game, for trying to chop Sabres brawler John Scott like a redwood at centre ice. Scott dominated the news cycle again earlier this month by calling Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf a “princess” after a game in Toronto.
Buffalo has replaced its coach and turfed its long-serving general manager. The team had been scoring an average of 1.62 goals a game heading into play on Friday night — by far the lowest total in the league — and had won only twice in regulation all season.
The trouble? The Leafs have not been playing very well, either.
Toronto opened the week with a 6-0 blowout loss against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and arrived in Buffalo after a crushing loss in Pittsburgh. The Leafs had a three-goal lead over the Penguins, but were held without a shot through the third period — and overtime — of an eventual shootout loss.
Toronto opened with a 1-0 lead after Kessel scored on the team’s second shot of the game in the first period. Matt Moulson tied the game eight minutes into the second, and Nikolai Kulemin gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead two minutes after that, batting a bouncing puck behind Sabres goalie Ryan Miller after Trevor Smith flicked the puck over the netting from behind the crease.
Shot differential has become a running theme for the Leafs. As bad as the Sabres have been (they entered the game with the worst shot differential in the league, at minus-10.6), the Leafs have not been far behind in allowing the play to wash over their zone, with the second-worst shot differential, at minus-10. Still, Buffalo won the battle 29-24.
A bad rebound and poor defensive zone coverage let the Sabres tie it at 2-2 in the second period. James Reimer kicked out a shot from an awkward angle, and Luke Adam was uncovered; left all alone to pop in his first goal of the season.