Toronto takes a trip down the Queen Elizabeth Way to clash swords with the Sabres in Buffalo. Each team is off to somewhat of a slow start as expected, but Toronto has three points throughout five games and Buffalo only has secured two with a single win.
Each team was rolling around in the gutter last season and ended up with excellent draft picks; Buffalo selecting highly ranked prospect Jack Eichel, and Toronto selecting the ‘magician’ Mitch Marner. Eichel has already played his first five games and has registered a goal in two of his first three games; Marner on the other hand will be marinating in the prospect pool playing for the London Knights another season.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Eichel, number 15. He’s still only eighteen years old but possess a high level of talent and can and will burn us if we give him the opportunity, he’s a gamer.
It’s still early in the season for Babcock and his Leafs, but with the slower start to the season with only four games in two weeks Mike and the boys have had a lot of time to practice and work on their new and improved game plans as they establish a system that suits the team. Obviously it takes time and patience, but so far I’ve seen some hard work from Toronto on both ends of the ice. It’s much more acceptable to lose when you give a quality effort night in night out as opposed to sulking on the bench and putting forth a mediocre effort. My point here is, it’s nice watching this year’s Leafs team more so than last year’s team where it got painful towards the end of the season.
Toronto faces the undefeated Montreal Canadiens this Saturday night, and Buffalo squares off with the Habs on Friday night; someone has to end this streak!
This evening Jonathan Bernier will be holding down the fort and hopefully he can secure a win and voila, the Leafs will be 2-3-1. Toronto will face off versus former Maple Leaf Cody Franson, who’s already been reporting saying “he was looking forward to it…. After Dion and Clarkson got in a scuffle the other night, who knows if the Captain and the former Leaf will tangle on the ice.
Toronto will be missing Tyler Bozak tonight who is injured with a lower body day-to-day issue. This opens up the door for another player and Mark Arcobello will lace them up on the fourth line. For now, Hollland will fill the void on the second line centering Matthias and Boyes.
The Leafs may be off to 1-3-1 start but they have faith the team is progressing in the right direction as Babcock moulds them into a more structured team than they have been in years past. The only real stinker so far was in Detroit, unfortunately; for Babcock’s first return to the “dirty D….
Babcock had a chat with Bernier regarding the early goals in games, as he was concerned this was an issue. “I’m not a big believer in putting your head in the sand and ignoring what’s going on, I like to address it. What I like about Bernie is he takes responsibility, works hard, he’s trying to do everything right.… It’s good to hear Babcock engages conflict and doesn’t tippy toe around his goaltender as he does his best to get not only Bernier on track, but the team. Babcock assures the goaltenders that their job will get easier as the team builds on their structural plan and executes, increasing not only their puck possession time, but their puck time in the oppositions end.
Let’s hope so, Toronto has a horrendous .889 combined save percentage between Bernier and Reimer; talk about ugly.
Marlies leading point producer William Nylander is off to a good start with two goals and three assists after four games with a +2 rating. I’m really looking forward to seeing him with the big club down the road.
Enjoy tonight’s game!
Thanks for reading.