In a lot of ways, this was a classic away game for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Buffalo Sabres: The Leafs had plenty of fans in the stands, the crowd was on their side, and they lost.
The major difference in this one was that the Maple Leaf players and their fans didn’t have to cross the border to get back home following the loss.
The Heritage Classic, a “home… game for the Buffalo Sabres against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Hamilton, Ontario on Sunday afternoon featured just about everything the league could hope for in an outdoor game: classic snowy weather, some quality hockey, and a controversial call which added some intrigue. The Sabres would win the contest 5-2 when all was said and done, meaning the home team won, even if it didn’t feel like a home game for Buffalo.
The anthems featured the gold-medal winning Women’s Canadian hockey team featured prominently during the Canadian national anthem and the stands were overwhelmingly packed with Leafs fans with only a small smattering of Sabres fans. Then again, that can be true of many Sabres/Leafs games in Buffalo, as tons of Leafs fans regularly make their way across the Peace Bridge to catch a game at KeyBank Center.
Wayne Gretzky came out before the game to honor his dad, Walter, who frequently travelled to Buffalo to catch a game. That was followed by a ceremonial puck drop by Artur Cholach, a native of Novoyavorivsk, Ukraine and a member of the Barrie Colts, who came out to drop the puck between Auston Matthews and Kyle Okposo while sporting a Ukrainian jersey. Both were nice moments.
Conditions were perfect for an outdoor game, at least from a visual perspective as light snow fell on Tim Hortons Field in the Hammer. Many Western New Yorkers and Torontonians undoubtedly grew up playing in these kinds of elements. For me, in East Aurora, the games were played on a pond at Emery Park with family, or with friends at Hamlin Park as we would try to get in some playing time on a Friday night before the police chased us out for being in the park after dark.
East Aurora now has the rink from the 2008 Winter Classic played at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, and it is absolutely a nice rink. It’s now a covered surface, though, which lacks some of the character of playing in an outdoor arena when the snow is falling on the ice. There’s undoubtedly something special about playing in the falling snow.
This venue in Hamilton is considerably smaller in capacity (25,000) than the one in Buffalo (71,000) where the Sabres played the Penguins a decade ago, and it’s not a coincidence that the league opted to play in Hamilton for just that reason. With the Sabres mired in a decade of failure and irrelevance, there’s no way that the team could have filled the Bills stadium like they did in 2008. There’s often a talking point among Canadian Sabres fans that border restrictions have led to an empty arena in Buffalo, but those Sabres fans evidently also didn’t feel like showing up to watch an outdoor game in Ontario as the overwhelming majority in attendance were Toronto supporters. It seems that despite their nationality, Sabres fans are burned out.
The outdoor conditions didn’t seem to bother either team early on as Jeff Skinner got a contested breakaway on Leafs goaltender Petr Mrazek, while the Leafs had their own partial breakaway chance as Mitch Marner had a chance to get in alone on Craig Anderson before Mattias Samuelsson neatly took the puck off his stick to eliminate the chance. Anderson would pick up his third NHL outdoor win after the contest this afternoon.
Dahlin had a gorgeous breakaway opportunity for the Sabres as Asplund fed the defenseman who got in alone on Mrazek and tried a nifty between-the-legs, against-the-grain wrist shot that was perhaps a little ambitious considering the snow on the ice, but nonetheless, it was a very cool move. Mrazek – who has struggled mightily and drawn the ire of Leafs fans as a result – was totally solid in the first period as he was asked to make 13 quality saves compared to just 8 for Anderson on the Sabres side.
Tempers flared toward the end of the first as David Kampf got his stick into Craig Anderson’s equipment following a whistle and Buffalo would take two penalties on the ensuing scrum: one from Vinnie Hinostroza who did not appreciate the extra jab to his 41-year-old goalie and decided to suplex Pierre Engvall in response, and one from Henri Jokiharu for slashing. Engvall got one of his own for retaliating against Hinostroza. The result was a power play for the Leafs that went nowhere for the “visitors.…
Let’s talk about the jerseys for a minute. They were fine. The Sabres had a tame version of their white road jersey that replaced the white with an off-white/light sepia because sepia = old. The Leafs had a blue jersey with a white “T… on the front in homage to the Toronto Arenas of yore. They were both inoffensive but nothing spectacular.
Meanwhile, the pace of the game really picked up during the middle frame.
Andre Kase finally broke the ice to start the second period following a point shot and a ricocheting puck that found its way to Kase in front of the net. Anderson was down and out on the play and had no chance on the shot. That lead was short lived as Hinostroza timed a perfect line change that put him in position to jump off the bench and start a 3-on-1. Hinostroza found Peyton Krebs in the high slot and Krebs buried a wrister high on the glove side against Mrazek.
Matthews re-established the Arenas, er, Leafs lead with his 45th of the season on a low wrist shot that beat Anderson on the blocker side. That’s a beautiful shot placement from the Leafs sniper, right between the blocker and body of the veteran netminder. It was all Leafs for the majority of the period as the visitors carried the play and out chanced and outshot Buffalo by a wide margin.
Again, Buffalo would answer.
TJ Brodie scored a beauty of a goal for the Sabres on a great feed from Hinostroza, as the Sabres forward’s pass hit Brodie’s skate for a deflection beat Mrazek and was not reviewed for a kicking motion. Hinostroza was credited for the goal for whatever reason.
The Sabres received a powerplay to end the second as Tage Thompson drew a hooking call but that powerplay was absolutely brutal and the Leafs had the better of the opportunities despite being shorthanded. There were way too many giveaways and sloppy plays with the puck while entering the zone, and Toronto could have had a couple excellent looks if not for the outdoor elements making things difficult on them in terms of settling the puck down.
Another powerplay in the beginning of the third period for the Sabres to start the third period was just as brutal as those before it. The turnovers were constant for the Sabres and Craig Anderson had to make more saves – and more difficult saves – than his Toronto counterpart. The powerplay did end with a gorgeous shot by Casey Mittelstadt who went high on Mrazek, but Mrazek came up with a quality glove save.
Perhaps the wind had something to do with the powerplay failing so badly, so it was fortunate, then, that the teams switched sides midway through the frame in order to even out the elemental advantage. Hinostroza broke the deadlock in the third with another improbable goal as he beat Toronto’s goalie with a horrible angle shot that beat the Leafs goalie from the redline in the Leafs’ end to make it a 3-2 lead for Buffalo. Hinostroza had himself a game.
The most controversial part of the game came late in the third period as Peyton Krebs threaded a shot past Mrazek who had seemingly knocked his own net off its moorings before the puck went into the net. The call on the ice was originally called no goal before the refs got together and reversed that decision, and it was subsequently confirmed by video review.
Tage Thompson would seal things with an empty netter, but that wouldn’t be the end of things as Dylan Cozens laid a beauty of a check into Auston Matthews which set off a mini donnybrook. It may be that the pressure of missed expectations is starting boil over among Leaf players.