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It has come to be expected that when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit Buffalo, they will not match the effort of the hometown Sabres, but the Leafs 9-3 loss at Key Bank Center on Thursday exposed the club’s most glaring chinks in their armor.
Despite Leafs players indicating they were aware and ready for a Sabres onslaught after losing 9-4 to Columbus on Tuesday, Toronto has served as the solution to Buffalo’s offensive woes, allowing six goals in a loss at Scotiabank Arena in early November and nine tallies on Thursday.
After Jordan Greenway scored the opening goal less than three minutes into the game, the Leafs did respond, tying the game on Auston Matthews spin-o-rama shot and taking the lead on Max Domi’s power play marker, but a combination of shoddy defensive play and another poor performance by Ilya Samsonov led to Toronto’s second straight regulation loss.
The defensive pairing of Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins were particularly bad (going a combined -7) and were victimized on Owen Power’s tying goal, and Mitch Marner’s attempted breakout pass was intercepted by Alex Tuch on Jeff Skinner’s go-ahead goal. The Sabres extended the lead to 4-2 on Rasmus Dahlin’s power-play goal, but Toronto narrowed the lead less than a minute later on Calle Jarnkrok’s short-handed tally. The backbreaker was Tage Thompson’s goal to put Buffalo back in a two-goal lead. That goal forced Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe to pull Samsonov.
It was a nightmarish night, particularly for Samsonov, who coming off allowing six goals in the OT loss to Columbus surrendered five goals on 19 shots.
“We have to play better in front of him and give him a chance to find himself,” Keefe said after the game. “He is going to do his work with (goaltending coach) Curtis (Sanford) He has been doing his work. When he is in the net, the guys in front of him have to give him a chance.”
While what Keefe said is true, the Leafs have a situation in that Samsonov is suffering through a crisis of confidence and the club has no other option than Jones at this point. Joseph Woll is likely out until the All-Star break, the club has no realistic internal options (Dennis Hildeby has 14 AHL games under his belt), and externally, a waiver pickup, free agent signing or acquisition would require cap space to add a player, and Toronto has very little flexibility.
This situation is something to watch after the Christmas break and NHL trade freeze lifts next week, as GM Brad Treliving may have to find a temporary solution to bolster the Leafs goaltending until Woll returns.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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