The weather on a weekend night in December when the Toronto Maple Leafs’ rivals in town and their large group of fans are in attendance usually has a high level of electricity and energy. No matter how good or bad both clubs are at the time, they tend to provide an interesting, exciting and compelling contest.
That was not the case when the Buffalo Sabers lost 6-3 to the Leafs at KeyBank Center on Friday night. The chaos in the building was one of frustration and impending doom, as Buffalo fell behind early in the first half on a Bobby McMann goal, had Alex Tuch’s goal canceled out by a penalty kick by Jason Zucker, and saw Auston Matthews extend the scoring. lead to the next power play.
The Sabers were undone repeatedly by the defensive secondary, as Nick Robertson and Max Domi’s tallies set up JJ Peterka’s goal to put Buffalo on the board. Goalkeeper Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was pulled and Toronto took a 5-1 lead midway through the second half, before the Sabers slowly climbed back into the game, Mattias Samuelsson and Owen Power reducing the lead to 5-3, but a review of the needle interference. He erased Power’s second goal in this game which would have reduced the score to 5-4.
“You have to earn your breaks, and we’re not doing that right now,” Zucker said after the game. “We’ve got to make better decisions and make sure we’re helping each other. If you’re going to play an offensive game, and you’re expecting someone to make a certain play, and they don’t, it’s going to be answered. You’re usually in a bad spot defensively, so you have to be careful.”
The consistent play has been the consistency shown by the Sabers this season. The losing skid began with respectable efforts against Minnesota and Vancouver, where they ran for hot goals, but a 4-1 blowout led to Colorado on December 3.rd it seems to have lowered the confidence of the club, and led to Detroit and Toronto making the month of December a deadly season.
“We are not a good team that rushes the game, as soon as we start to rush the game and (create) risks, we expose ourselves a lot,” said Sabers coach, Lindy Ruff.
The Sabers have road games in Boston and Long Island before Christmas break to end the streak, but for now, it appears the outcome of the 2024-25 season is already set in stone.
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