The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to extend their winning streak to five games in Buffalo at Key Bank Center on Tuesday, but that is a feat easier said than done, as the Sabres is just one point behind the Leafs (in spite of three straight losses after having an NHL-best 10-game winning streak snapped) and traditionally dominate Toronto at home.
The Leafs have a career 30-72-6 record in the Queen City and normally underwhelm against their Atlantic Division rival, but Toronto players recognize that they need to play their best to earn two points in the formerly monikered Hot Sauce Blue Cheese Arena.
“These games are easy to get up for,” former Sabre Tyler Ennis said on Tuesday morning. “There is great energy in the building, a lot of fans creating a lot of noise and we’re rivals from across the border (and) they’re really fun games.”
Newly signed William Nylander did not make the trip to Buffalo and may skate with the club at practice on Wednesday, but it is unknown whether the winger will get back into the lineup on Thursday vs. Detroit, on the road in Boston on Saturday or wait until next week.
With Josh Leivo moved to Vancouver in anticipation of Nylander’s return, Frederik Gauthier makes his return to the lineup and will center the fourth line with Ennis and Andreas Johnsson, while Par Lindholm moves up to the third line and shifts to the wing with Nazem Kadri and Connor Brown.
When Nylander does get back into the lineup, there could be a further upheaval. Leafs head coach Mike Babcock seemed to pour cold water on the idea of moving Kasperi Kapanen to left wing, that would enable the speedy winger to play with Matthews and Nylander and suggested that Brown could be in store for a position change.
“I don’t know if (shifting Kapanen to left wing) is an advantage for him. When we’ve done that, we’ve flipped (Brown) over there.” Babcock said. “We’ll figure that out. Right now, without Willy here, we still don’t have that concern.”
The Sabres are playing the second of back-to-back games and after starting Carter Hutton in Nashville will go with backup Linus Ullmark (5-0-2, 2.57 GAA, .927 save %), while Frederik Andersen (15-7-0, 2.30 GAA, .931 save percentage) will make his fourth straight start for Toronto.
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Most of the focus at Monday’s press conference was on the new contract for William Nylander, but in his availability with the media, GM Kyle Dubas gave an indicator on what he plans to do before the next deadline he faces.
With the signing of Nylander and trade of Leivo, the Leafs have slightly less than $6 Million in cap space in advance of the NHL trade deadline and can open up more room if they choose to place Nathan Horton’s contract on long-term injured reserve.
Dubas says that he wants to just observe what effect Nylander’s insertion into the lineup will have on the club, but will keep an eye on where improvements could be made between now and February 25th.
“(We’re going) to evaluate our team and see how William coming back in effects our club.” Dubas said. “We’ve got all of our (draft) picks, we’ve got a very good assortment of prospects and the cap space, so we’ve got the ability to be flexible and see what our roster may need as goes along, but we’ll take our time in doing so.”
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