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For the first time this season, the Maple Leafs have technically won back-to-back games on the road.

“Technically,” because this was more or less a home game for them if the makeup of the crowd was any indication.

One would think a Sabres team on a massive losing streak, whose home rink was invaded by the opposing fans, would come out flying. Instead, the Leafs raced out to an early lead and never really looked back. 

A three-game winning streak (and counting) pushes the Leafs back into first place in the Atlantic 33 games into the season.

Your game in 10:

1.   To start the game, Craig Berube reverted his top-six lines to the more traditional look with Matthew Knies alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner and Max Pacioretty with John Tavares and William Nylander, but it was the third line that made an early impact by scoring just 1:29 into the game. 

The goal itself was not only the third line’s fourth goal in the last four periods but also their fourth rush goal.

The sequence started in the defensive zone with the reunited Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe pairing. When the Sabres had possession down low, Benoit did what he does best: erasing JJ Peterka on the wall, freeing up the puck for the Leafs to start a breakout.

McCabe made a nice bump pass to the middle of the ice to Max Domi, who then passed it over to Nick Robertson on the wall, where Robertson sprung the attack by taking a hit on a terrible pinch by Dennis Gilbert. Robertson passed it back to Domi, who went down the ice on a 3v1.

At first, the 3v1 was giving flashbacks of his 2v1 with Tyler Bertuzzi against Boston in the playoffs, but Domi did well to look back to the goalie, sell the shot just enough to freeze the netminder, and pull the defender over. Domi then did what he does best, feathering a pass over to Bobby McMann, who one-timed it home.

Suddenly, the Leafs have gone from a detrimental third line to one that is high-flying and red-hot, and they got off to a great start in this game against a fragile opponent.

2.    You would like to think that the Leafs grabbing an early against a fragile team in front of a home crowd on the road would immediately lead to more good things. That is not what happened initially, though.

The Leafs’ fourth line, who went out with Morgan Rielly and Conor Timmins, gave up a grade-A scoring chance in the slot. On the next shift, the Sabres scored.

They scored the goal partly because Chris Tanev was high-stuck and bleeding, leading to a breakdown in coverage and a clean Alex Tuch shot in the slot. Fortunately, one of the officials caught the high stick, and the goal was disallowed, but there were a couple of disappointing response shifts after the Leafs took the early lead.

3.    The Leafs were rewarded with a four-minute power play and a chance to double their lead early on. It took some time, but they ultimately broke through.

They generated a few early looks, namely off of a Nylander one-timer and then a Tavares shot in the high slot that he fired just wide. The second unit struggled to gain the zone, but the top unit returned to the ice with the extended power-play opportunity.

On a bit of a broken sequence, after Nylander faked a one-timer to pass to Tavares in the slot that got broken up, Marner swooped in and touched the back to Nylander, who had a mini 2v1 down low and saucered a pass over to Matthews for an easy one-time finish.

The one wrinkle to note about this power-play goal was that Oliver Ekman-Larsson was at the top instead of Rielly, but this was again the exact setup we talked about recently with Nylander and Marner on the half-wall and Matthews rovering around hunting his shooting spots on the ice. It looks really good.

4.   The swing of the Sabres thinking they tied it to a double-minor that the Leafs scored on really sucked the life out of Buffalo offensively. The Leafs started stringing together good shifts, save for their fourth line, which was hemmed in badly on successive shifts.

The most noteworthy event in the remainder of the period was Tage Thompson’s healthy run and hit on Matthews and Morgan Rielly‘s immediate response against a player he’s giving up half of a foot to. The fight went about as you would expect (Rielly did not win), but that was irrelevant; it was the simple fact that Rielly stepped up.

Over this core’s tenure, if there is one guy you can count on to step in and step up when a game gets squirrely, it has always been Rielly, and he did it again here without hesitation. Everyone knows Matthews is hurt, and there is an intent to inflict pain — fair enough, as the Sabres shouldn’t roll out the red carpet for him, but it also makes it an understandable response from Rielly to step in.

Usually, I say take a number and don’t fight after a clean hit, but this is a bit of an exception, and Rielly responded appropriately. The Leafs, of course, took the extra penalty, but the team dug in and killed it off, eventually ending the period up 2-0.

5.   The Leafs’ third line scored 1:29 into the first period. In the second period, it took them just 1:53 to add to their lead.

The first half of the goal is a good example of why the Sabres are on an 11-game losing streak as four players pushed up ice, and the puck handler tried to skate through the Leafs’ defense. Matthew Knies made a nice back check, Timmins poked it off his stick, and Rielly quickly gathered the puck and sent it right up the middle of the ice through four Sabres players and onto Robertson’s tape for a clean 2v1.

Robertson looked at Domi most of the way down the ice, causing the Sabres defender to back off, and it gave Robertson plenty of space to rip the puck five-hole. That’s where he scored on Dallas’ Jake Oettinger in the last game, and it’s where he scored when he was in Buffalo last season, too, among other examples. Robertson loves shooting five-hole and scores a lot of goals that way with his deceptive release. It looks like he’s going high, and then he almost heels it low on the ice.

The goal brings Robertson up to six points in three games, as after a massive goal drought, he is starting to make up for lost time.

6.   The third line stayed out after scoring and immediately gave the goal right back.

The sequence started on a D-to-D exchange between the reunited McCabe and Benoit, as Benoit took a pass with plenty of time and space and somehow lost his balance, almost falling in the process. That seemed to throw off his timing, resulting in a bad pass up the boards to Robertson, who didn’t look entirely sure about what was happening. Nonetheless, Robertson didn’t box out on the wall or get the puck out.

After the Sabres won the battle, they passed it over to Peterka at the top of the circle, who just whipped a puck to the net, and it found its way through Matt Murray. Murray made some really good saves before this goal and some really good saves afterward, but this was a weak one.

7.   The third line giveth, the third line taketh away. 4:30 into the middle frame, the third line giveth again. On their next shift after the Sabres’ goal, they extended the lead one more time.

As Domi and McMann jumped on the ice, Marner was still on to end his shift and recovered a puck off a failed Sabres rush attempt. Marner immediately ripped a pass up ice, hitting an in-stride McMann, who had a lane to the net. McMann had a step, but space was closing, and instead of trying to force his way through, he made a great 180 pass to a trailing Domi, who ripped it to the high corner before letting out an emphatic celebration.

I guess McMann and Domi saw Robertson score a goal (which they went pointless on) and decided they needed to get back in on the action.

The Sabres pulled their goalie and sent in James Reimer, making it the second straight game the Leafs chased a goalie.

8.    The goalie switch didn’t help, as the Leafs scored again six minutes later. This time, Max Pacioretty capitalized following a terrible line change by the Sabres that gave the Leafs the freedom of the entire neutral zone.

Rielly hit Tavares with a pass from blue line to blue line, and Tavares passed it cross-ice to Nylander, who knew he had a streaking Pacioretty driving the net. Nylander didn’t even attempt to stickhandle; he just cradled the puck and ripped a crisp pass to Pacioretty, who easily redirected the puck for his fifth of the season.

This was Nylander’s second primary assist on the night, which was fitting because he seemingly created at will all night.

The Sabres did get a goal back later in the period, scoring on a 4v4 sequence as Mattias Samuelsson got a clean look from the top of the circle against Murray and took a nice shot off the bar and in.

The game still felt comfortably in control at that point, although the Sabres went to a power play late in the second period, and the Leafs killed it off with relative ease. Chris Tanev blocked the Sabres’ best chance, and the kill squashed a good chance for Buffalo to take some momentum into the third.

9.   In the third period, the Sabres largely had nothing going on, and the Leafs were trying to kill the clock as simply and pain-free as possible. They very much looked like a team keenly aware that they play again the next night, and ice time was managed accordingly.

After another stretch of 4v4 play ended, the Sabres went down the ice and scored. The fact that it went from 4v4 to 5v5 is important to note on the goal; Nylander was at the end of his shift, and after the Sabres recovered possession from him in the offensive zone, he skated off. The Sabre nearest to Nylander, Owen Power, went down the ice unmarked, and by the time Robertson got on the ice following the line change, he had no chance of getting anywhere near Power.

Power skated deep into the offensive zone, Samuelsson took Knies wide off the rush and got the puck to the net, and Samuelsson banged home the rebound. It wasn’t game on, but Buffalo did show some signs of life.

10.   With three and a half minutes left, it appeared that Buffalo was right back in it as Power scored yet again. Credit to the Leafs coaching staff for challenging for goalie interference; if they get it wrong, not only is it 5-4, but they would have been penalized. On the replay, it was clear it would be goalie interference as contact was made with Murray’s stick, causing him to lose his moorings.

After the disallowed goal, it was fairly elementary the rest of the way, and Nylander capped his excellent night with an empty netter.

The story of this period — and for large portions of this game — was that the Leafs play again tomorrow against a better opponent. No forwards on the team hit the 20-minute mark. Pontus Holmberg recorded the lowest TOI number at a solid 10:29. Only two defensemen played over 20 minutes, and one of them was Conor Timmins (!).

There was some obvious minute management happening, which is what you want in the first game of a back-to-back: Score early and often, take the opponent out of it, roll the lines, and kill the clock. 

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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