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The Toronto Maple Leafs were unable to recover from a sluggish start on Saturday, surrendering three first period goals in a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Center.
Evander Kane scored twice and Sam Reinhart added a power-play goal to give Buffalo a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes, which was enough of a cushion for Robin Lehner, who allowed only Mitch Marner’s power play goal late in the second period.
“You've got to give (Buffalo) credit, they were prepared, they were organized, they played harder than we did at the start. It's like being a pitcher if you're the (Sabres) goalie. If you're a pitcher and they've got you up 5-1, it's way easier to be a good pitcher.” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said following the game. “I talked to the guys about this this morning, there's not much to pick between any of the teams. I made it very clear. Maybe our guys think there is but there obviously isn't. So, you've got to come and compete each and every day.”
The Sabres played with a high level of desperation, as a loss would have moved them nine points behind Toronto in the race for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
The weekend was not particularly kind to the Leafs, as Ottawa, Boston, Florida, Philadelphia, NY Islanders and Tampa Bay all registered wins. The Leafs inexperience, defensive limitations and hectic schedule may be catching up to them, as they have lost four of six games in February.
The Leafs had trouble waking up, allowing a trio of first period goals in a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Air Canada Center on Saturday.
After a day off, Toronto will practice on Monday and play another pair of games back-to-back, at home against the New York Islanders on Tuesday and on the road against Columbus on Wednesday.
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The Maple Leafs have a lot of options as the March 1 trade deadline approaches.
Although it is not expected that they will make any deals for rentals, Sportsnet’s
Nick Kypreos reported on Saturday that Toronto may have interest in veteran center Brian Boyle, who may be available if the Tampa Bay Lightning fall further behind in the race for a playoff spot in the East.
Kypreos also mentioned that Toronto was one of 12 teams that Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk would have interest in signing a long-term deal with, but that could simply be the blueliner is using the Leafs to promote his free agent status this summer.
Another avenue that GM Lou Lamoriello could pursue is to repeat what the Leafs did last deadline, using the club’s cap flexibility to take on salary from other teams looking to shed payroll before the deadline.
Toronto has not placed Nathan Horton, Stephane Robidas or Joffrey Lupul on long-term injured reserve(LTIR) this season. If they do, they could open up as much as $13.55 Million in pro-rated cap space.
The Leafs placed Horton on LTIR last season, which enabled them to take on more salary in the Dion Phaneuf deal, the salary dump of Raffi Torres in the deal with San Jose for Roman Polak and the $4.5 Million cap hit of Brooks Laich in the deal that sent Daniel Winnik to Washington.
These deals yielded four second-round picks for Toronto in 2017 and 2018.
Lamoriello may not be willing to take on a contract that lasts longer than this season, since Toronto will need that room this summer to re-sign Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown and Zach Hyman and make additions on defense, but the LTIR option could give the Leafs the option of using their cap space to help a team like Montreal move out the $3.5 Million salary of David Desharnais and accumulate more future assets.
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