A strong showing from the blueline with Chris Tanev and Morgan Rielly out of the lineup was unlikely. The only pairing that had the potential to remain intact was Oliver Ekman-Larsson with Simon Benoit, and while they saw some time together in the first, much like every Leafs pairing it was soon blown up.
There was some potential to consider Oliver Ekman-Larsson a success story tonight. He had two points, including a beautiful lob pass to set up William Nylander for his breakaway goal. A lot of that was undone by his meatball of a pass that was intercepted late in the third allowing Alex Tuch to score shorthanded and twist the dagger in the Leafs for the Sabres fifth goal.
Brandon Carlo’s night wasn’t bad, but he certainly didn’t elevate his game much. He was one of the better Leafs defencemen but that didn’t mean much tonight.
What did mean a lot is how much Jake McCabe elevated his game in a futile effort. He was easily the best player on the ice and when the Leafs had to endure 1:58 minutes of 5-on-3 hockey, he managed to hold the Sabres shotless by laying down four blocked shots on the penalty kill. He’d finish the night with six total blocks, five came in the first period.
The true disappointments come with the Leafs depth. Philippe Myers looked unplayable and given that he’s sat for three weeks that is to be expected. Somehow Dakota Mermis looked worse and Brad Treliving should be getting to work on finding a replacement, either recalling Henry Thrun, Matt Benning, or William Villeneuve for a look.
There wasn’t much consistency in the defensive pairings but that was largely born of necessity as Craig Berube quickly realized that Mermis and Myers couldn’t be on the ice together, even against the lowly Sabres.
Some other notes
- William Nylander provided a lot of highs before providing a significant low. His breakaway goal was beautiful. He had a second breakaway which should have arguably resulted in a penalty shot for him. He was hitting, backchecking, and creating off of zone entries. He looked like the perfect fit for the Matthews line… until he got hurt.Nylander’s collision in the third resulted in him missing a shift, taking one short shift, and then not returning for the night. Losing Nylander would be devastating for the Leafs right now but given that they play again tomorrow night, it seems very possible he’ll at least be absent on Saturday.
- The Leafs once again came up flat in the second period. After a strong start to the period, the Sabres got on the board twice and the Leafs have fallen to a -9 goal differential in the second. Is it possible the long change is catching up to the older Leafs?
- In nice stories, Dakota Joshua did score his first as a Leaf, giving Cowan his second NHL point, and Nic Roy his 100th career assist. So a few milestones even if John Tavares is still sitting at 498 career goals.
- If there was one consistently bad thing the Leafs were doing it was giving too much space to the Sabres down low and the team should not have been able to complete the passes they got away with. If they got five on Anthony Stolarz, it’s worrisome what will happen when Cayden Primeau is in net.
The Sabres and Leafs are back at it tomorrow at 5PM ET. Hopefully Nylander is healthy, ditto for Rielly. If not the best advice would be to focus on pregaming for the Jays.
Sponsored by bet365