The hockey equivalent to the Hatfields and McCoys turf war will renew their rivalry in Buffalo tonight.
The train that was supposed to carry the Buffalo Sabres to the Lord Sidney Cup playoffs has officially left the station.
The Sabres can blame their demise on their dreadful streak of play post NHL bye week. Buffalo enters Hockey Night In Buffalo with a 3-6-1 record and are 10 points behind the NY Islanders for the second Eastern wild card. Five other teams stand between the Sabres and Islanders.
Buffalo's constant struggles can be boiled down to two fatal laws:
Poor 5 on 5 scoring and a busted screen door of a blue line.
The Sabres are the owners of the #1 PP unit in the NHL. However, their PP brilliance was merely a facade for their negligence to score at even strength. Couple that with a porous, passive blue line and you have serious problems.
That Toronto are ahead of Buffalo in terms of their re-organization is especially disturbing to Sabres fans right now.
What are the differences between the Sabres and Leafs at this juncture of the respective re-builds of each franchise?
Secondary and tertiary scoring.
The Leafs are led by Auston Matthews and his 33 goals. Nazem Kadri has 30 goals and James Van Riemsdyk has 23 goals. Willie Nylander has 21 goals. Mitch Marner, Tyler Bozak and and Connor Brown have 17 goals apiece.
Buffalo cannot brag of the same embarrassment of riches.
Kane leads the Sabres with 25 goals. Eichel has 21 goals. Kyle Okposo has 19 goals while O'Reilly and Samson Reinhart have 17 goals apiece.
The Sabres and Leafs have allowed 214 goals against.
The Leafs have scored 42 more goals than the Sabres have.
Jack Eichel's 50 points in 53 games has been an amazing feat. Evander Kane and his even strength goal scoring prowess has been sensational. However, there aren't many platitudes to be thrown around about the Buffalo offense after that. Bylsma has not inspired more point production from former second overall pick Samson Reinhart.
Many Sabres fanatics would say coaching. Sabres fans wanted Mike Babcock to be the successor to tanking Ted Nolan, not Dan Bylsma. Babcock's mastery in developing young star players leaves Sabres fans wanting more. Bylsma has been criticized roundly for teh past two seasons for his inability to develop young players.
Babcock has developed Auston Matthews (60 points), Mitch Marner (57) and William Nylander (56) to the point where all three first year players currently lead the team in scoring.
Ryan O'Reilly wanted a better outcome to this season. He wanted to be playing in meaningful hockey games in May and June. O'Reilly will have to wait until next season to participate in the NHL postseason. For now, ROR wants to derail the Toronto Maple Leafs and their playoffs- bound train.
“We thought we’d be much closer and fighting for that last (playoff) spot right now, especially when we were coming out of the break,” O’Reilly told Mike Zeisberger on Friday.
“With Toronto, there’s always hype around them. They’re one of the most talked-about teams in hockey. It’s a rivalry.”
O'Reilly's Irish blood has been boiling. He left Colorado to pursue greener pastures in Buffalo. So far, he is ohfer two in qualifying for the playoffs. O’Reilly has 25 points (8G, 17A) in his last 23 home games.
O’Reilly would love to spoil the euphoria and warm and fuzzies that Leafs fans are feeling right about now.
“I want to beat them,” the Clinton, Ontario native said of the Leafs.
Toronto defeated Buffalo 2-1 on November 3 in their only previous meeting on Buffalo's sheet earlier this season.
O'Reilly bottom lined it:
“I don’t want to see them in the playoffs.”
With two QEW street brawls left to be played in Buffalo, Clan O'Reilly can derail and spoil the Leafs' bid for a playoff berth.
A Sabres over the Leafs tonight will knock Toronto back a few steps.
Robin Lehner is the starter against a Toronto. Lehner has stopped 160 of 170 shots (.941) in his last five appearances.
Bylsma will activate previously injured forwards Will Carrier and Kyle Okposo for the Leafs tilt. Dmitry Kulikov and Justin Falk will all be back in the lineup. The Sabres have lost 368 man games to injury this season. That'll take a huge bite out of an NHL team's playoff chances. Carrier has missed the past 24 games with a serious knee injury. Okposo missed the past 10 games with a rib issue. Kulikov's wonky back kept him in the press box the past 9 games. Falk has missed the past 4 games with a calf injury.
Rasmus Ristolainen will sit out game one of his ludicrous three game suspension.
A Buffalo regulation win will lower Toronto's odds of making the playoffs to 78%.
Did you know that the home team has won 23 of the last 28 games between the Sabres and the Maple Leafs?
The Sabres are 17-2-1 in their last 20 home games against the Maple Leafs.
Toronto’s win in Buffalo on November 3, 2016 snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Sabres that lasted 1,373 days.
Each team has won its last road game the series, marking the first time the Sabres and Maple Leafs have won in each other’s arenas in the same season since 2012-13.
The Maple Leafs haven’t won consecutive games in Buffalo since March 21 and December 12, 2008.
This is the fourth of five meetings between the Sabres and Maple Leafs this season.
Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Toronto 3-1 in Toronto on February 11.
Next meeting: Monday, April 3 in Buffalo
The Sabres are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games vs. the Maple Leafs; 8-1-1 at home.
This is the 205th game all-time between Buffalo and Toronto; Buffalo has a 112-66-26 series record.
The Sabres are 68-26-8 at home against the Maple Leafs all-time.
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Evander Kane has eight points (6G, 2A) in his last eight games against Toronto.
Jack Eichel has five points (1G, 4A) in five career games against the Maple Leafs.
Samson Reinhart has totaled three points (1G, 2A) in three games against Toronto this season.
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Speaking, of Eichel, the super sophomore has not gone two games without a point since January 31 and February 2. In the 24 games since, Eichel has totaled 29 points (9G, 20A).
In the time since his Nov. 29 return from an injury that sidelined him for 21 games, Jack Eichel is tied for 10th among all NHL skaters with 50 points (21G, 29A) and leads the league with 216 shots on goal.
Eichel has logged 35 points (13G, 22A) in his last 32 games, including 10 multi-point outings during that stretch. The Sabres are 12-2-0 this season (and 21-5-0 in his career) when he has at least two points.
Eichel’s .94 points per game rank him 12th among all players with at least 20 games played this season.
Eichel has 106 points in 134 career NHL games (45 G, 61 A). His 45 goals are the most from the 2015 NHL Draft.
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Jake McCabe has recorded eight (2G, 6A) of his 19 points in his last 13 games, averaging 21:36 of ice time per game during that stretch.
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Jack Eichel has 29 points (11G, 18A) in 26 home games this season, including nine multi-point outings.
Evander Kane has 10 points (7G, 3A) in his last nine home games.
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Evander Kane has scored each of his 25 goals this season in his last 50 games.
Kane is tied for 13th in the NHL with 22 even-strength goals despite not scoring his first until December 3.
Since December 1, Kane is tied for sixth among all NHL skaters in goals (25) and leads the NHL in even-strength goals (22).
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