Leafs-Sabres Post-Game
The final score of 7-4 is very misleading, including as it does 2 short-handed empty net goals at the end of the period. Shots favoured the Leafs 36-29, and Ryan Miller was forced to make a number of key saves in the third period.
It was a very fun game to watch, if a little odd. Toronto jumped out to an early lead on a pair of goals scored on 5-on-3 power plays, after which TSN flashed the stats: Buffalo has already won 6 games this year after going down by 2 goals. Better make that 7 games. They just don’t stop coming at you, no matter what happens.
I hope someone grabbed the puck that Michael Ryan put into his own net. That was Ryan’s first NHL game, and you could see the heart-break in his posture after he put it by Miller. Assuming he sticks in the league, someone should wait for him to score his first real goal and present him with tonight’s puck along with that one. Maybe the win tonight will be enough to let him laugh about it.
The good news for the Leafs is so far against Buffalo this year, they’ve got a convincing win and a loss that easily could have gone the other way. This game was that close. While the Leafs certainly didn’t outplay the speedy Sabres, they skated with the best, the fastest team in the league for the entire 60 minutes. Not what we were supposed to be saying a quarter of the way into the season about the Leafs.
Matthew Stajan had a great game. He played over 18 minutes, was strong on the puck, and created numerous chances for himself. I like the way Jeff O’Neill has played this year, but I’m afraid he may be the deadweight on that second line. Alexander Steen is oh-so-close to breaking out. You can see it in the way he skates and dipsey-doodles with the puck. It’s funny. I’m not used to seeing a young kid looking so confident with only a single goal - especially with expectations so high this year. I liked Steen last year but I’m finally starting to get a sense of why JFJ reportedly refused to include Steen in a trade for Chris Pronger.
The Leafs can’t get Mats Sundin back fast enough. Michael Peca has been more than worth his $2.5 million salary this year, but he’s just not a clutch-scorer anymore. Late in the game, pressing for a tying goal, he’s just not who I want out there. Kyle Wellwood, Nikolai Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Stajan, Steen, even Tomas Kaberle and Bryan McCabe - all great players, all have shown the capacity to score. Not one comes even close to the dominant play of the Leaf’s captain. Given the closeness of the game - if not the score - the Leafs performed well enough for me to say that Sundin’s presence in the lineup could easily have been enough to tilt the scale in favour of the Buds.
If they can play like this every night, they will earn themselves home-ice advantage in the first round. Upcoming games against the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins are four very winnable points. But neither team will hand them over. We need to see more nights of 60-minute of effort like this.