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The Toronto Maple Leafs begin a stretch of three games in four nights against Atlantic Division foes against the Buffalo Sabres at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday. The Sabres, who are at .500 and likely to miss the playoffs for the 13th straight season, as usual have saved their best hockey for the closest geographic rival, beating them 6-4 in Toronto in early November and handing them a 9-3 drubbing at Key Bank Center just before Christmas.
The Leafs are expected to dress the same lineup that lost to Boston 4-1 on Monday, with the exception of Ilya Samsonov starting in place of Joseph Woll, while Buffalo will go with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal.
Like every NHL club, the Sabres and Leafs are approaching Friday’s trade deadline with trepidation, but the two QEW rivals are in different positions altogether. Buffalo is holding out veteran defenseman Erik Johnson for what is expected to be trade reasons, but are playing wingers Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons, who are also expected to be on te move before 3 pm Friday.
The Leafs made a move to bolster their blueline last week with the re-acquisition of Ilya Lyubushkin from Anaheim, but it is expected that GM Brad Treliving is positioning himself to make another move in the next 48 hours.
The dominoes have begun to fall around the league, with Edmonton trading their 2024 first-round pick to the Ducks for Adam Henrique and former Leaf Sam Carrick, Florida acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko from Ottawa, and Vegas getting Anthony Mantha from Washington.
The defensive trade targets have not moved other than Sean Walker going to Colorado for Ryan Johansen, which means that most of the trade targets that Toronto is interested in are still on the board. Treliving is not likely to be in on the Noah Hanifin sweepstakes, but based on his comments last week that he is willing to deal the 2024 first-round pick, the Leafs could be in on a blueliner with term remaining on their deal.
That kind of deal is not likely, but Toronto could still be in on rental depth pieces on the blueline and at forward.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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