Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin (centre) celebrates one of the three goals he scored against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night in Toronto.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
They say desperate times call for desperate measures.
At the very least that’s what the Toronto Maple Leafs will be hoping for after Tuesday’s 7-4 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres left the team’s playoff hopes in need of severe resuscitation. After collecting just one point from the 10 on offer during its five-game home stand, Toronto is now eight points back of the final wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference, currently occupied by the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins.
The players certainly paid lip service to the concept of desperation after another pallid performance repeatedly allowed Buffalo back into the game before the Sabres got into gear to seize the victory.
“I think if we want to make up ground in the standings and make a push here, we have to be desperate and I don’t think we’ve had that in our game enough,” Morgan Rielly said afterwards.
The team had picked Tuesday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of former captain Darryl Sittler’s NHL-record 10-point game. The official date (Feb. 7) falls during the Olympic break, so the Leaf great and Hall of Famer spent Tuesday morning regaling the current players with stories of seventies hockey and life under infamous team owner Harold Ballard.
But with Sittler four decades removed from his last NHL game, there was nothing he could do to help the team on the ice. That responsibility fell on the shoulders of the 20 players suiting up Tuesday night.
They were unable to carry the burden.
First-period goals by Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews twice gave Toronto the lead, but the Sabres answered back through Rasmus Dahlin, Josh Doan and Tage Thompson to take a lead into the dressing room. After Dahlin and Bobby McMann traded goals in the second period, Buffalo took the game away from the Leafs through Alex Tuch’s goal 16 seconds into the third period.
Dahlin put a ribbon on his – and his team’s – performance with 44 seconds remaining, cashing in on an empty-net opportunity for his first career hat trick to cap his five-point outing.
Joseph Woll, who started for the fourth time in the homestand, made 24 saves on 30 shots, and has now lost his past five starts.
“Until we decide to do things right and keep the puck out of our net, and that’s the goalies included, this is what you’re going to get,” head coach Craig Berube said. “We scored enough goals on this home stand to win games, but we didn’t keep the puck out of our net.”
Toronto Maple Leafs alumnus Darryl Sittler greets Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly (44) during a ceremony to commemorate Sittler's 10-point night before the start of Tuesday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
The Sabres, who are looking to end the league’s longest active playoff drought at 14 years and counting, have taken a massive step forward in their development this year. The team has shown both dynamism and resilience, riding a 10-game win streak last month to vault right back into the playoff race.
It’s the sort of momentum the Leafs will now have to generate if they are to salvage their season. While some might question the team’s confidence in its current predicament, veteran forward John Tavares said finding inspiration over the season’s final 29 games won’t be a problem.
“We’re playing the game at the highest level in the NHL and you’re playing for a historic club,” he said. “And there’s a lot of hockey left here. Nothing’s been determined. So the motivation is very easy. So that’s not a problem.”
Toronto now heads out on the road, heading to Seattle to start a four-game road swing before the NHL’s Olympic break on Feb. 6. The Leafs don’t play another game at Scotiabank Arena until Feb. 28.
The team’s problems though, are numerous, and it will take considerable effort to get things sorted out before Thursday.
“Work, mindset, communication, I think it’s almost all the above,” Knies said when asked about the team’s deficiencies. Case in point, Toronto didn’t even manage to earn a single power play.
But if Toronto is going to get things turned around, it’s going to have to do it the hard way, and that means earning everything that comes its way, according to the head coach.
“We didn’t control the offensive zone enough to get some power plays tonight,” Berube said. “We did at times, but if you want to get power plays, you got to skate, and you got to attack, and you got to put people in vulnerable positions to take penalties.”