Leafs deal Sabres major blow
LEAFS SABRES 4 3
Imagine if the skate was on the other foot.
Imagine if a Maple Leafs team in a pitched battle for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference went into Buffalo to play a Sabres team with the second-worst record in the conference, and also a squad missing three regulars up front and both of its goaltenders. And lost. There would be outrage, calls for firings and trades, vicious critiques of management and ownership. The captain would be anonymously assassi- nated in print and the coach’s credentials questioned.
So what happens when it happens the other way around?
Well, disappointment in western New York, for sure, although hope still exists that the Sabres can catch the Washington Capitals in the final week of the season. But an inquisition is unlikely. Still, Lindy Ruff’s team fell shockingly short against an embattled Leaf team that hadn’t won in its own building since Feb. 6, had been beaten by six goals at the Air Canada Centre just two nights earlier and deployed a former U.S. college free agent in net with only eight previous NHL appearances under his belt.
All the elements were there for the surging Sabres — a team expected to make the playoffs when the season began while the Leafs were not — to waltz in and grab two easy and important points.
home ice since stepping behind the Leaf bench and the beleaguered blue-and-white only their sixth triumph in the past 26 games, a colossal fall from grace that has taken them from a playoff berth to a favoured draft lottery position.
On this night, however, the Leafs most definitely showed some of the character and fight that had been so absent 48 hours earlier against Philadelphia. They got a rousing cheer as they wearily lifted their sticks to the crowd at the end of the night, and this time, there were no derisive “Let’s Go Blue Jays” chants ringing in their ears.
Tank Nation won’t be pleased with the result, and it really was as meaningless a win as meaningless gets. Still, there were noteworthy, even gutsy, efforts and enough good moments from young players to undermine the absurd notion proffered by so many of late that Brian Burke’s club has “nothing” to go forward with from this lost season.
They’re not good enough, not even close. But nothing? That wasn’t what was on display against a sizzling hot Buffalo team on Saturday night. Phil Kessel scored his career high 37th goal but even more notably, busted his hump in the final minute of play in a defensive role to almost singlehandedly kill much of the clock. It was one of those rare nights when Kessel delivered some intangibles and seemed to embrace the notion he’s here for more than shots on goal and points. Industrious Joey Crabb, who seems to have found favour under Carlyle, scored a pretty shorthanded goal to open the night. Matt Frattin played arguably his best game as a Leaf and had the winner, and Clarke Macarthur, the ex-sabre, was a whiz with the puck all night.
The standings say the Leafs are a bad team, and so a bad team is what they are. But they could have rolled over against the Sabres and did not. Sure, the Sabres were missing Tyler Myers and Christian Ehrhoff, but the Leafs didn’t have Nik Kulemin, Dave Steckel and Joffrey Lupul, then lost Mikhail Grabovski during the match and still fought hard as a group.
“What we’re really trying to sell is the team game,” said Carlyle.
Scrivens, summoned to avoid throwing Jussi Rynnas to the wolves for a second straight game, played well if not brilliantly, and his exuberant, take-charge personality certainly will give Leaf management food for thought as it works through its messy goaltending situation this summer.
He was, on this night, symbolic of the possibilities not yet readily visible for the Leaf organization, possibilities that lie in players skating for the Marlies or major junior or in U.S. colleges or yet to be mined from the NHL entry draft in June.
Possibilities that amount to significantly more than nothing.