NHL Game Preview - Buffalo at Toronto
Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:00 PM EST

MTL
1
NJD
2
F
BUF
3
TOR
5
F
LAK
3
TBL
4
F(SO)
EDM
2
NSH
3
F(SO)
FLA
4
COL
3
F(OT)
ANA
0
VAN
4
F
Sabres, Leafs start get-to-know-you stretch
Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:17 PM

The Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs will be seeing a lot of each other.

The Sabres will visit the Maple Leafs on Monday night and will return to Toronto on Saturday. The Maple Leafs visit the Sabres on March 20.

Both teams are coming off impressive home wins on Saturday. The Sabres defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2, while the Maple Leafs spotted the Montreal Canadiens three first-period goals before coming back for a 6-3 victory, ending a three-game losing streak.

The Sabres were in a 1-4-1 funk before beating the Capitals, a carryover from a good effort in a shootout loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.

They executed the approach that coach Phil Housley has been teaching all season -- playing tight in their own end and forcing the opposition to shoot from the outside.

"They can see it's effective," Housley said.

"Sometimes it's not pretty and we have to make the right decisions. Obviously, we tell them they have to make plays, just make the right decisions. ... Usually when we're managing the game we're going north, we're not chasing anything and using our energy in the right area."

Said Sabres captain Jack Eichel: "I thought we've done a good job the last two games for sure. We've defended when we need to; we've worked hard; we played pretty desperate. Obviously, two good teams, I thought we had two good performances, so I think that's something to be happy about for us. We've just got to build off of it."

The Sabres were concerned when Jeff Skinner, who has a team-leading 36 goals, fell to the ice clutching his left knee in the second period and was helped to the bench. He returned in the third period.

The Maple Leafs, down 3-0 after the first period against the Canadiens, had two goals from Zach Hyman, including the game-winner at 18:10 of the third period. Hyman added one of Toronto's two empty-net goals in the final minute.

It is only the second time in the long history between the teams that the Maple Leafs have overcome at least a three-goal disadvantage to beat the Habs. The other was March 26, 1969, a 6-4 win.

"I thought we started fantastic," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said.

"I thought the first eight minutes -- I don't know if we can skate any faster or move the puck any better. When they scored, for whatever reason, we lost composure there for a bit. Even their power-play goal, we weren't in the right spots.

"We were able to get in the room and get regrouped. We've got a lot of belief in our team; we think we've got a good team. We talked about having lots of hockey, got to start doing things right."

Toronto's' previous victory after overcoming a deficit of at least three goals was Dec. 6, 2010, a 5-4 shootout victory over Washington.

The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 4-3 in overtime on Dec. 4 in their first meeting of the season.

--Field Level Media

Team Record Comparison

Standings W-L-OTL Aw/Hm Stk L10
Buffalo  
Toronto  

Hot Players (Last 10 team games)

Injury Report

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