The Toronto Maple Leafs will play the Buffalo Sabres tonight for the second time in a week.
Last Sunday the Maple Leafs went down 2-0 but stormed back to give Buffalo their 10th straight loss. The game opened horribly for the Leafs, but then Buffalo being Buffalo, they were easily able to climb back in and send the Sabres home angry.
A normal Leafs game in Buffalo is almost like a home game because its so filled with Leafs fans, but this should be better than usually because I am pretty sure that no one who actually likes the Sabres would be will to attend a game at this point.
After losing to the Leafs, the Sabres went on to lose 6-1 to the Montreal Canadiens, and are now in last place in the Eastern Conference, and only two points out of the basement of the entire NHL.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Buffalo Sabres
After a great 37 save performance, you would have thought it was safe to say that Joseph Woll is the Leafs starter for tonight's game, but it actually turns out that Matt Murray has been recalled and will start.
The Sabres will either go with Luukkonen or Reimer, but it doesn't really matter because both are terrible. If they dress Reimer and the Leafs win, there will be an extra bit of sweetness in the victory, of course, but either way, it doesn't really matter.
The Leafs most recent game against Dallas was not their best. They will be looking to rebound from a game in which they were happy to win despite a poor performance, especially the Tavares, Pacioretty and Knies line, which was putrid.
It's hard to understand if the Leafs problems against Dallas were the player's fault of the coaches. The fact is, Craig Berube should have enough of an understanding of hockey analytics to know that placing his three best players on one line is not optimal.
The math says play each one on a separate line, but even if Berube isn't ever going to deviate too much from hockey traditionalism and put Nylander on the 3rd line, he could at least keep Matthews and Marner apart.
They are extremely dangerous together but suffer from the Law of Diminishing Returns. The difference between what Matthews can do alone and with Marner does not make up for the fact that when you play them separately, four other players who are not anywhere close to their talent levels get bumps. This should be known as the Rising Tide Lifts All Boats Theory.
The Leafs are way better than Buffalo, but they have lost 11 games in a row, so they're going to be dangerous. The Leafs must avoid the trap game and play to crush the Sabres tonight.
The game is 7PM Buffalo Time, which is also regular old Eastern Standard Time. See you then!