The credo of a bad team is that they lose games even when they outplay or outchance their opposition. Last night, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo that credo was proved correct as the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a heartbreaking 3-2 decision in overtime to the Buffalo Sabres. The confines of the HSBC Arena have never been kind to the Leafs, even when they were a contending team and their opposition was pathetic. That was not the scenario last night, as the team with the league’s worst record faced an overachieving Sabres club, who had a glowing 7-1-1 record. The Leafs have begun to pull out of their early season funk, going 1-1-1 on their 5 game road trip, so there was some room for optimism.

The Leafs resorted to their usual modus operandi by putting themselves behind the 8 ball early in the game with careless and stupid penalties. Consecutive penalties by Tomas Kaberle and Lee Stempniak gave the home team a 5-on-3 power play, which yielded the Sabres first goal by Drew Stafford. Like the previous game in Dallas, the Leafs showed resilience and responded a little over 3 minutes later, when Ian White slapped the puck from the point that beat Sabres netminder Ryan Miller. The 2nd period was fairly balanced, with each team having decent scoring chances. Throughout the game, another annoying trait of the current Maple Leafs team reared it’s ugly head. This team has a nasty habit of getting too cute with the puck, trying to make one too many passes in the offensive zone and making dangerous drop passes, when they should be concentrating on shooting the puck on net. This habit is probably due to a lack of confidence to finish the play, but it is disastrous when it results in a turnover, which is what happened last night. On an offensive rush, Niklas Hagman, rather than driving to the net, pulled up at the blueline and chose to make a cross ice pass to a trailing forward, rather than passing to Mikhail Grabovski, who was headed towards the net. The cross ice pass was intercepted by Jason Pominville, who sent in Leaf Killer Tim Connolly on a clear cut breakaway and Connolly beat Jonas Gustavsson stick side with a wrist shot.

The 3rd period was totally dominated by the Leafs, who outshot the Sabres 16-5 but could not beat Ryan Miller. Alexei Ponikarovsky had a great opportunity but hit the post on a wide open net and Lee Stempniak had a one-timer at the side of the net that Miller got over to stop. The Leafs pulled their goalie with just under 2 minutes remaining and could not generate a good scoring chance with the man advantage. Their chance to tie it up looked to be dashed when Matt Stajan took a penalty on a pick play in the Sabres zone with just under a minute remaining, but Mikhail Grabovski tipped in a Tomas Kaberle point shot with just 38 seconds left and sent nearly half of the arena’s occupants, who were rooting for the Leafs into a frenzy. Their joy lasted all of 102 seconds, because Stajan’s penalty carried over into the overtime period. In the OT, the Leaf penalty killers scrambled to try to get the puck out of the zone, but Tim Connolly held the puck in, calmly skated to the center of the offensive zone and blew a point shot by Gustavsson to give the Sabres the victory.

In his 3rd consecutive start, Jonas Gustavsson is showing the reasons for why so many teams pursued him in the off-season. His quickness and agility allow him to cover the net with ease and he appears unfazed when the pressure is on. Tomas Kaberle had a good game with two assists and a +2 rating in over 21 minutes of ice time and Lee Stempniak played effectively, playing the point on the power play and logging over 20 minutes of ice time. On the other hand, the Leafs penalty killing unit turned in another atrocious performance, allowing two power play goals, including the winner in overtime. The formula that is killing the Leafs right now is pretty simple:

The NHL’s worst penalty killing + Taking numerous stupid penalties = 30th place in the standings(1-7-3.)

There has been proper time for roster evaluation and the team has some glaring shortcomings. Nothing can be done to bring in an impact player until the off season, but GM Brian Burke can make a tinkering move or two that would make the team more competitive in the short term. Players like Rickard Wallin and Jamal Mayers do not appear to serve any useful purpose other than to occupy a roster spot and a player like free agent Michael Peca, who is an excellent penalty killer and leader would be helpful in making this team more complete. The addition to the lineup of Phil Kessel, which is tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday’s game vs. Tampa will not cure all the Leafs ills. His presence will definitely help, but Phil is not a savior and expecting everything to be fine and dandy with his presence in the lineup is unrealistic.

The Leafs end the month of October the way it began, facing the Montreal Canadiens, but tonight’s game is at the Bell Centre. The Leafs home opener on October 1st was a disappointing 4-3 overtime loss, with the Habs’ Josh Gorges scoring the winning goal with just 13 seconds left in the extra period. All indications are that Vesa Toskala will start in net tonight.

From the desk of Mike “In Buffalo” Augello

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