The Leafs defeated the Sabres on Wednesday, but it was a sleeper until the late stages.
The Leafs defeated the Sabres on Wednesday, but it was a sleeper until the late stages.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of offensive weapons and playing against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday should have proved to be an offensive showdown.
Well, I hope you took the under.
The Leafs narrowly defeated the Sabres 2-1 in overtime on Wednesday. Despite some late-game heroics in a 24-save performance from Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov and Auston Matthews scoring his NHL-leading 54th goal to win the game, the contest was a snoozefest. It was, without a doubt, the most boring game of the season for Toronto.
And it turns out there was a good reason for that, according to Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.
"Last time we played these guys we gave up nine," he said. "You can understand why the guys were a little gun-shy tonight."
Total shot attempts in the game at even strength favored Buffalo 44-39, which was quite low. Keefe also reasoned that he felt maybe the Leafs were leaving some of their energy in the tank for Thursday when they visit the Boston Bruins in the second half of back-to-back games.
The Leafs fell to the Sabres 9-3 on December 21, but the main difference on Wednesday was Ilya Samsonov appears to have fully recovered from his earlier-season struggles that peaked during Toronto's last visit against Buffalo when the Russian goaltender was pulled after allowing five goals on 19 shots.
Samsonov helped push the game to overtime after making a kick save on Rasmus Dahlin's deflected shot on the net.
Keefe also felt the Leafs made one too many passes on their opportunities.
"I thought we were a little bit too cute and could have maybe attacked the net a little more," William Nylander said. "I mean, we won. So?"
The Maple Leafs were outplayed by the Bruins earlier this week and there will that should prove to be another measuring stick game for Toronto.
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