Leafs Can’t Get The Job Done In Buffalo – Are We Surprised?

Well, the Leafs chose to add to their ridiculously long streak of futility in Buffalo as they were downed by a score of 5 – 3 in Thursday’s game. The game itself was fairly exciting with a fast paced, high intensity, in-your-face feeling to it. There was back and forth action amidst the screaming of over 18 000 crazed fans, predominantly Leaf supporters. However, if you enjoy watching a technically executed, defensively well-played game, you would have had trouble finding any of that in tonight’s game.

At least six of the eight combined goals scored were the result of brutal defensive breakdowns or simple execution problems. The four goals the Leafs allowed, excluding the empty-netter, were chances the Sabres should not even have been presented with had the defense executed properly. On the first goal, Kaberle was far too soft on his man in the corner. He allowed him to get the puck behind the net and fire a pass to Zhitnik who crept in off the point just behind the Leafs infront of the goal who had their backs turned to the play in the slot. The second and third goals were the results of the defensemen’s inability to handle the puck infront of the goal. Inevitably, it would be turned over for a chance right in the slot. The fourth goal looked as though Belfour had it smothered but Satan was able to poke in the obviously uncovered puck. He should not have even had this opportunity as he should have been trying to pick himself up off the ground after being knocked down.

The power play was again, an awful attempt at what is supposed to be time where your team has an advantage. The Leafs had the man advantage for the remaining 3:51 of the game. During this power play, they were unable to manufacture one decent scoring opportunity. For the final minute with a two man advantage after pulling Belfour, they could not even gain the red line before it was iced by the Sabres. If anything has to improve, this is, by far, the most important priority. To put it nicely, the power play has been anemic all season long. If the defense is going to be questionable as it was tonight, the power play must cash in on these opportunities to give the Leafs a chance to win hockey games.

The Maple Leafs will take on the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday at Air Canada Centre in what promises to be an extremely physical game that will leave you tremendously irritated with several players on that team.