Toronto Maple Leafs at Buffalo Sabres
Time: 7:00pm ET
Watch on: Sportsnet
Opponent’s site: Die By The Blade

The Leafs take to the road again for tonight’s second half of the back-to-back, facing the Buffalo Sabres for the final time this season.

Egor Korshkov’s agent scooped the Leafs last night with a now-deleted tweet announcing that the forward had earned his first NHL call-up with the Leafs, something that has now been confirmed by the Leafs themselves.

Mason Marchment has also been recalled from the Marlies. No injuries or illnesses have yet been announced so question mark on who exactly either of them may be replacing in the lineup tonight.

Mason Marchment continues his dominance in the AHL

On the other side of the ice, it’s been a minute since the Leafs faced the Sabres – their last game was December 17th’s 5-3 win – so I’m not too sure how the Sabres ...

have been doing ...

this season.

Hmmmm. Well, that’s not as egregiously bad as I was expecting considering how many Buffalo fans I’ve seen on twitter being very, very upset at the team – though I do think that’s very fair, given that they’re now on year what, fifty, of their “rebuild”?

They’re also much better defensively than they are offensively, to be fair, with an xGA/60 of 2.17, which is good for seventh in the league, just back of the Dallas Stars. And as we saw on Thursday night, good defensive teams are quite capable of giving the Leafs offense, as over-powered as it is, absolute fits. Thursday’s game was also not the Leafs best for keeping up pressure (or having any pressure), but they were much better in that respect last night. Given the Sabre’s fairly grim shot rates, as long as Andersen can keep his five hole closed, we should be able to avoid a repeat of that game.

Hell Is Bad Goaltending

Final thoughts:

  • Nylander, Matthews, and Marner all scored last night, which I’m pretty sure means we’re due for a Tavares hat trick tonight. Right? Right.
  • Auston Matthews and David Pastrnak are now tied with 42 goals, and I really think the Leafs should assign someone to keep repeating that fact to Auston every 2-3 minutes. /

That’s all for now. Go Leafs go!

Maple Leafs Lines
Based on last night’s game

Forwards
Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Alexander Kerfoot - John Tavares - William Nylander
Pierre Engvall - Jason Spezza - Kasperi Kapanen
Kyle Clifford - Frederik Gauthier - Dmytro Timashov

Defense
Jake Muzzin - Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin - Timothy Liljegren
Travis Dermott - Tyson Barrie

Goalies
Frederik Andersen
Jack Campbell

Buffalo Lines
Based on their lines at yesterday’s practice

Forwards
Victor Olofsson - Jack Eichel - Sam Reinhart
Curtis Lazar - Marcus Johansson - Jimmy Vesey
Jeff Skinner - Evan Rodrigues - Conor Sheary
Zemgus Girgensons - Johan Larsson - Kyle Okposo

Defense
Brandon Montour - Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin - Colin Miller
Jake McCabe - Henri Jokiharju

Goalies
Jonas Johansson
Carter Hutton/Andrew Hammond

Game Coverage