The Toronto Maple Leafs had to be thankful on a number of fronts after their 4-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Center on Tuesday. The Leafs ended their two-game home losing streak with an energetic effort against their Atlantic Division rival, who have won only two of their first 10 games.
Tyler Bozak, Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Gardiner scored for the Leafs, who improved to 4-4-1 with the win. Jonathan Bernier made 10 saves for his first win at the ACC and registered his first shutout of the year.
Toronto uncharacteristically dominated puck possession against a road-weary Sabres club on the final leg of a four-game road trip, which included contests against Western Conference powers Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
The Leafs outshot Buffalo 37-10 in the contest, but were stymied by Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth until Bozak finally broke through on the power play at 19:10 of the second period. The flood gates opened early in the third, as Kessel and van Riemsdyk scored a minute apart to increase the lead to 3-0 and Gardiner scored a highlight reel tally to cap the victory.
The 10 shots allowed by the Leafs marked the least amount of shots on goal by an opponent in the 98-year history of the club. Toronto also broke a 0-23 slump with the man advantage that stretched back to October 12 with Bozak’s goal, but it nearly came at a very high price, as Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf left the ice hobbled by a collision with teammate Nazem Kadri after Marcus Foligno interfered with the Toronto forward just inside
the Leafs zone.
Phaneuf surprisingly emerged from the locker room for the third period unscathed, played regularly for the remainder of the contest and participated in three-on-three drills with the Leafs on Wednesday morning at their practice facility in Etobicoke, ON.
“I was surprised he wasn’t any worse for wear.” Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “A little bit of pop in his hip and he was back.”
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TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Tuesday that there is not an imminent threat that the Leafs plan to fire head coach Randy Carlyle, but that a coaching change is possible later in the season if the club goes through a prolonged slump.
The Leafs are currently .500, have struggled on home ice and are not getting the level of performance they expected from key players like Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Joffrey Lupul. Dreger indicates that that GM Dave Nonis could very well explore trade options before making a decision on the head coach, but that the trading season does not really get underway until American Thanksgiving.
Another complication is the lack of a viable option outside the organization as a new head coach. Dreger reports that the Leafs are unlikely to have interest in former Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma.
If Carlyle is let go before the end of the season, it is likely that assistant coach Steve Spott or Peter Horachek would take over on an interim basis and that a coaching search would take place in the off-season.
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