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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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BUFFALO – The Toronto Maple Leafs got a look at life without Frederik Andersen on Saturday night, and it was an ugly view.

After playing the entire first period against the Buffalo Sabres, it was Curtis McElhinney leading the team out for the second, trailing 2-1. Andersen was nowhere to be found on the bench, and he would miss the rest of the game with an upper-body injury. Andersen finished with 14 saves on 16 shots.

Without him the Maple Leafs got run over by their division rivals, falling 5-2 in their most lopsided loss in weeks.

After the game, head coach Mike Babcock didn’t have much to offer in way of an update on his starter.

“The other team’s doctor thought he should come out of the game, so he came out of the game,” he said. “Our doctors are seeing him tomorrow, and then I’ll have a better handle on what’s going on. Don’t read anything into anything. I didn’t go back to our trainers [after the game], so we’ll give you a report on Monday.”

Toronto's team doctor doesn’t always travel to every road game, which could have affected the Maple Leafs ability to properly assess whatever concerns the Sabres’ doctors had. Upon reviewing the tape, there was a play mid-way through the first period where Andersen was trying to corral a loose puck and Evander Kane fell onto the back of his neck, which could have raised some red flags.

Babcock refused to speculate on what it would mean if McElhinney were to assume the starters’ role for any length of time. More than anything he was disappointed with his club’s execution, with or without Andersen.

“This is all on us. They were better than us,” Babcock said. “They skated better, they were quicker. They responded after we scored. They looked prepared we didn’t, period. I was surprised about the whole thing. For whatever reason we weren’t as good tonight. [And] your lulls at this time of year have to be real short.”

McElhinney is 4-4 this season in nine games played. He had only registered one start – two nights ago against New Jersey – in the last three weeks as Toronto rode Andersen into career-high territory with his 61st start on Saturday. Having acquired their number-one in a summer trade, Toronto chose to only use its backup on the second night of consecutive games. With so few in-game reps, coming in cold becomes an even bigger challenge, but the backup would certainly like to play better than he did in Saturday’s 19-save performance.

“The results speak for themselves,” he said. “It was a difficult second period to go into, that’s for sure.”

Andersen was 6-2-2 in his last 10 starts, and had allowed more than two goals only once in that stretch. As a team, Toronto had been playing superbly in front of him – going into Saturday’s game they were 7-1-1 in their last nine. But their tenuous hold on third place in the Atlantic Division got a little more fragile with the loss and a Boston Bruins win in regulation. Toronto is now only one point up with one game in hand.

Buffalo has been a tough place for the Maple Leafs to play even before they were without their number one goaltender. A win on Nov. 3 marked just their third in the last 20 visits, and the Sabres are now 69-26-8 all-time when hosting the Maple Leafs.

Brian Boyle said after Toronto’s 5-2 win in Columbus that the Maple Leafs would go “as far as Andersen takes us” in the playoffs, underscoring the importance of goaltending to everything the Maple Leafs want to achieve over the next three weeks. But Morgan Rielly refused to blame the goalie’s absence for why the team played so poorly in the second half on Saturday.

“That didn’t have any impact on the game. We’re not very happy with how we came out,” he said. “They capitalized on their chances. We kind of let that one get away from us and in that [second period]. We know the importance of [these games]. We want to be better, we expect ourselves to be better, so now we’re in a position where we have to bounce back.”

Toronto has eight games left to play, including two back-to-backs. If Andersen can’t return immediately, Garret Sparks would be the logical call-up. He’s been the best of the Toronto Marlies’ goaltenders since Christmas as he’s posted a .925 save-percentage in the 25 games he’s played this season.​

 

Takeaways

Extra-man power: The Maple Leafs and Sabres have the first (24.1 per cent) and second (23.9 per cent) ranked power plays in the league, and those units played a huge role in Saturday’s outcome. After Auston Matthews tied the game 2-2 just over two minutes into the second period, Matt Martin and Jake Gardiner took uncharacteristically poor penalties and Buffalo capitalized on both – first it was a one-timer by Jack Eichel that beat McElhinney, and then a one-timer by Dmitry Kulikov. Toronto had no answer for the Sabres’ scores when their own man-advantage chances came up, going 0-for-3. After a string of being extremely disciplined – taking six penalties over their previous four games – it was a bad night for the Maple Leafs to sit in the box.

Rookies on point: Matthews has endured a couple scoring lulls in his fantastic rookie campaign, but on Saturday he tallied his sixth point in four games with a score that tied him with Wendel Clark for Toronto’s franchise record in goals (34). He wasn’t the only first-year player to have a good night – Connor Brown got Toronto on the board in the first period with his 18th of the season, and William Nylander extended his rookie franchise record point streak to 11 games with an assist on Matthews’ goal.

Jack Attack: When it comes to players who have the Maple Leafs’ number, Jack Eichel is right up there this season. Despite missing the first game with a high-ankle sprain, Eichel has done plenty of damage over the ensuing three (and the rest of the league – he’s ninth in points per game since returning from the injury in late November). He added to the three points he’d already tallied in the first two matchups with a three-point night against Toronto on Saturday. Eichel fooled McElhinney with his booming shot on the power play and the sophomore player was flying all over the ice for 60 minutes, firing four shots on goal and being a dominant puck possession player for Buffalo (at over 55 per cent). Matthews admitted after the game the Maple Leafs should have done a better pre-scout on his former teammates’ power play acumen, but that was just one of many ways Eichel contributes to a win like that.

Suddenly unlucky? One of the driving factors behind Toronto’s success this season is how fortunate they’ve been when it comes to injuries. With the exception of Rielly and Mitch Marner missing half a dozen games each, the Maple Leafs hasn't lost skaters for long, and not all at once. Now, they have Nikita Soshnikov, Josh Leivo and Eric Fehr all out with injuries, with no timetable set for when any will return (although Fehr had surgery and seems to be out for the duration of the season). With Leivo’s injury a surprise reveal on Saturday morning, Ben Smith got back in the lineup after a 12-game absence, and he and the fourth line had a difficult night possession wise. Brian Boyle, Matt Martin and Smith were all at 30 per cent or less, while seeing ice time of 10 minutes or more. Babcock has been trying to incorporate the fourth line more often with Boyle on it, but Smith had at least two turnovers that kept the line on their heels.

Next game: Toronto returns home to play the Florida Panthers for the fifth and final time this season on Tuesday. ​