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Toronto, ON (WGR 550) -- I thought the Ron Rolston era got started pretty well. Yes, Buffalo did give up some Grade-A opportunities, but had some very good chances too. Both goaltenders, Ryan Miller and Ben Scrivens were fantastic.
On the first shift of the game Buffalo looked as determined as I’ve seen them all season. Jason Pominville got in on the forcheck quickly causing a turnover, but Thomas Vanek missed three glorious scoring chances on the same shift, with two coming down the slot back-to-back. The first was a wide open net from a bad angle.
Miller looked sharp early on, stopping Phil Kessel motoring up the slot.
Buffalo broke through first when Tyler Ennis netted his 6th on a beautiful 2-on-1 started by a great, timely pass by Drew Stafford allowing Ennis to blow by Carl Gunnarsson. The newest Sabre Kevin Porter had a 2-on-1 too, but he tried to pass to a tied up Nathan Gerbe and there was no shot.
I liked the compete, Robyn Regehr was tough in front and I didn’t see many shortcuts.
That started to end in the second period when Toronto took over. "I thought we played well at spans in the game," Rolston said. "I didn't like our 2nd period, obviously. That was probably the turning point."
The Leafs grabbed the momentum after Buffalo had a goal by Steve Ott taken away by a horrible call. Porter was called for goaltender interference, but it was actually Scrivens that ran into him!
Miller agreed: "A little surprising on that call," the Sabres goaltender noted. "[Scrivens] was way out of his crease and he slides into the play. I don't know too many guys getting that call right now. I wouldn't even hope for that call. If I'm that far out and I'm leaning into a play, I expect to have to recover. We didn't get that benefit."
From that point forward, the decisions were horrendous and the effort went down. Toronto took the lead when Christian Ehrhoff made a horrible decision to try to keep a puck in. It allowed Kessel to lead a 2-on-1 that Alex Sulzer was awful on. He allowed the pass across and James van Riemsdyk had an easy tap-in.
"The 2nd period wasn't good enough," Miller said. "We didn't do the things we talked about in the 2nd and it changed the way the game was being played."
On the first shift of the game Buffalo looked as determined as I’ve seen them all season. Jason Pominville got in on the forcheck quickly causing a turnover, but Thomas Vanek missed three glorious scoring chances on the same shift, with two coming down the slot back-to-back. The first was a wide open net from a bad angle.
Miller looked sharp early on, stopping Phil Kessel motoring up the slot.
Buffalo broke through first when Tyler Ennis netted his 6th on a beautiful 2-on-1 started by a great, timely pass by Drew Stafford allowing Ennis to blow by Carl Gunnarsson. The newest Sabre Kevin Porter had a 2-on-1 too, but he tried to pass to a tied up Nathan Gerbe and there was no shot.
I liked the compete, Robyn Regehr was tough in front and I didn’t see many shortcuts.
That started to end in the second period when Toronto took over. "I thought we played well at spans in the game," Rolston said. "I didn't like our 2nd period, obviously. That was probably the turning point."
The Leafs grabbed the momentum after Buffalo had a goal by Steve Ott taken away by a horrible call. Porter was called for goaltender interference, but it was actually Scrivens that ran into him!
Miller agreed: "A little surprising on that call," the Sabres goaltender noted. "[Scrivens] was way out of his crease and he slides into the play. I don't know too many guys getting that call right now. I wouldn't even hope for that call. If I'm that far out and I'm leaning into a play, I expect to have to recover. We didn't get that benefit."
From that point forward, the decisions were horrendous and the effort went down. Toronto took the lead when Christian Ehrhoff made a horrible decision to try to keep a puck in. It allowed Kessel to lead a 2-on-1 that Alex Sulzer was awful on. He allowed the pass across and James van Riemsdyk had an easy tap-in.
"The 2nd period wasn't good enough," Miller said. "We didn't do the things we talked about in the 2nd and it changed the way the game was being played."
Nathan Gerbe has to play with some bite and for the first time all season, we saw that tonight. He even went after Dion Phaneuf starting a fight.
The third period started off a little better for Buffalo. Vanek almost scored on a long shot from the blue line that Scrivens bobbled badly. For the first 10 minutes they tightened up drastically. Most of that was because the Sabres had good possession, but not too many chances.
In the 3rd, Tyler Myers made a horrendous pass out front the was picked off resulting in a great Leaf chance. He looked totally gassed. It also got the Sabres running around and Porter took a penalty. Jochen Hecht the shot the puck over the glass and Toronto had a 1:16 5-on-3. Miller made a phenomnal save coming across on van Riemsdyk. The Sabres did a great job of killing it until Myers got on the ice, went down for no reason allowing van Riemsdyk a wide open net.
There were some things to like about this game, there were some things that improved, but in the end, Ron Rolston has a lot of work to do with this group. Some players, including Thomas Vanek, are still getting used to having a new head coach. "Obviously a different voice," Vanek said. "But I thought he was good. Everyone knew what they were gonna do, he talked a lot, and it was fine."
"It was a little different," said Tyler Ennis. "Lindy's been my only coach, but I thought Ron did a great job."