The Good, Bad & Ugly in Maple Leafs 2-1 OT Win Over Buffalo

By Stan Smith

The Toronto Maple Leafs squeaked a 2-1 home win over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

The Ugly

This was not a pretty game. It felt as if the three periods of regulation time were played in a phone booth. Neither team allowed the other team any room to move. While both goalies made some great saves to keep the score as low as it was, the fact that regulation ended 1-1 pretty much sums up the game’s excitement level.

For some reason, all the information usually provided by Naturalstattrick.com was not available for this game. The website Moneypuck.com listed the Expected Goals at the end of the third period as just 2.21 for Buffalo and 2.20 for Toronto.

All-in-all except for some sporadic moments, the game was a snoozer until it got to the three-on-three overtime.

The Bad

About four minutes after Toronto took a 1-0 lead early in the second period, the Maple Leafs were a victim of a bad bounce, some bad refereeing, and Ilya Samsonov’s only bad play of the night.

After the Maple Leafs dumped the puck into the Buffalo zone, Sabres’ forward Zemgus Girgensons batted the puck out of the zone. If it were a baseball, it would have been a pop-up fly ball. The puck landed just outside the Toronto blue line.

David Kampf would have been the first player to the puck but he was interfered with by Zach Benson and prevented from getting to the puck. There was no call on the play. That allowed Victor Olofsson to pick up the puck, skate a few strides into the Toronto zone right, and fire a wrist shot past Samsonov. It was a good shot into the top corner over Samsonov’s glove. However, I am guessing it is one that Samsonov would like back. It was unscreened and seemed to catch Samsonov by surprise. That was the only flaw in Samsonov’s game and he more than made up for it.

The Good

Ilya Samsonov

Only a huge save by Samsonov in the dying seconds of the third period followed by some excellent stops in the overtime kept this game from ending quite differently. It had to be an extremely difficult game for Samsonov to play. It consisted of long periods of inactivity followed by short flurries where he needed to make several saves. In the first period, the Sabres did not get a single shot on net in the first 15 minutes. They then fired nine shots at Samsonov in the last five minutes of the period. Buffalo only managed three shots in the third period, but Samsonov had to make an athletic save with just under 20 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

William Nylander

William Nylander scored his 34th goal of the season to put the Maple Leafs up 1-0 early in the second period. However, his defensive play stood out in this game. It might have been the hardest Nylander has played without the puck in his career. The recently united line of Nylander with Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi has been good offensively. But they have not been as good defensively before this game.

Nylander seemed to take the defensive load on his shoulders against the Sabres. He made numerous strong defensive plays in both the offensive and defensive zones. If Nylander can use this performance as a template for the future, he could take his game to a whole new level.

Marner/Matthews Magic

This was not a great offensive game for either Matthews or Marner. They both played strong games without the puck. However, they just could not find room to consistently control the play with the puck in regulation.

That changed in the last minute of overtime. Marner created time and space behind the Sabres’ net. That allowed Matthews to get himself into position to receive a perfect pass from Marner. Then the puck was on and off his stick and into the Buffalo net in a split second to end the game. It was Matthews’ 54th goal of the season, but only his second goal in the last six games. It was also Matthews’ 80th point of the season. It is the third season in a row that Matthews has topped the 80-point mark.

Ilya Lyubushkin

Less than a week ago it looked like Ilya Lyubushkin was going to be lost to the Maple Leafs for a long time. It seemed that he appeared to have suffered a concussion when he was on the receiving end of a controversial hit by Matt Rempe of the New York Rangers.

Not only did Lyubushkin not miss any time, but he has also been the Maple Leafs’ best defenseman statistically in both games this week. In the Boston game on Monday, Lyubsuhkin was on the ice for eight shots for and three shots against and had an Expected-Goals Percentage of 72.8 playing at 5-on-5.

He took those numbers to a new level in this game. At 5-on-5, Lyubushkin was on the ice for 13 shots-for and only two against. His Expected Goals Percentage was an amazing 94.3 percent. Lyubushkin played 19:34 in the Buffalo game.

What’s Next?

Hopefully, the Maple Leafs saved some energy for tonight. They travel to Boston to seek revenge after their 4-1 loss to them on Monday. While they are on the second of back-to-back games and the Bruins were off Wednesday night, Boston did play Monday and Tuesday. It will be the third game in four nights for both teams.

I stated after the Maple Leafs lost to Boston on Monday and dropped eight points behind them, that if Toronto wanted any hope in catching the Bruins in the Atlantic Division they had to hope for two things. First, they had to hope Boston would lose to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. Second, they had to beat the Sabres on Wednesday. Boston did lose to the Oilers; and, Toronto did beat Buffalo. However, the Bruins did get an extra point as their game went to overtime.

That leaves the Maple Leafs seven points back of the Bruins. If they can manage a regulation win tonight in Boston, the Maple Leafs would close to within five points of the Bruins and still have two games in hand.

The Maple Leafs Are in Solid Position in the Atlantic Division

The one thing Toronto did do with the win against the Sabres was solidify their hold on third place in the Atlantic Division. They are well-positioned for a playoff spot. They are currently eight points ahead of both Tampa Bay and Detroit and twelve points up on the ninth-place New York Islanders.

Note #1: Although the Maple Leafs are carrying three goalies with as light a load as Samsonov had in the Buffalo game and as well as he is playing I wonder if we might see him go back-to-back and play in Boston.

Note #2: Once again there is a flu bug going through the locker room of the Maple Leafs. David Kampf had missed practice on Tuesday but was well enough to play against Buffalo. But, Jake McCabe reportedly never even made it to the rink on Wednesday. William Lagesson stepped in for McCabe.

Noah Gregor was in the lineup in place of Pontus Holmberg. I did not hear if that was due to illness or injury, or if Holmberg was a healthy scratch. Conor Timmins has been cleared to play after his bout of mononucleosis. I wonder if we could see him in the lineup in Boston.

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