Buffalo Sabres @ Toronto Maple Leafs
07:00 PM at Scotiabank Arena
Watch on: TSN4, MSG-B
The Leafs last game was at home on January 25 against the Colorado Avalanche, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-1 in regulation. The Leafs have a record of 24-19-9 for a 0.548 Points %.
The Buffalo Sabres last played away on January 24 against the New York Islanders. The Sabres won by a score of 5-0 in regulation, and their current league record is 29-17-5 for a 0.618 Points %.
Them
There will be lots of talk about the Sabres being hot right now, and of course, the hot hand is real so enough said.
But in reality the Sabres played very okay-ish for close on two months and have played very good hockey at five-on-five for one month since then and rather bad for the other. Their goal differential didn't match their play for most of December, but it has been great lately as their play has backslid a bit. If that sounds like the goaltending turned good to you, you win a prize. That's exactly what has happened.
Over the whole season their Corsi and Expected Goals % puts them in the 50% club, with the xG within one point of 50, but that understates their more recent play by. They have a 52% Goals For over the entire season at five-on-five, so even their "bad" play wasn't so bad.
Their power play has been very poor with not much improvement from shooting skill/luck. Their PK is pretty good, not great, but they've had really good goaltending there.
Their team Save % is tenth in the NHL. But again, do not "just one thing" it and claim that's all they have going for them.
Alex Lyon has been the better goalie overall.
Lines
Rachel Lenzi via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice
Zach Benson - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch
Jason Zucker - Ryan McLeod - Jack Quinn
Josh Doan - Noah Ostlund - Konsta Helenius
Jordan Greenway - Peyton Krebs - Beck Malenstyn
Mattias Samuelsson - Rasmus Dahlin
Bowen Byram - Owen Power
Zach Metsa - Michael Kesselring
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen - likely starter
Alex Lyon
Us
William Nylander said he is going to try to play on the coming road trip, perhaps in Seattle, but that's not for sure yet.
In the interim there has been some roster talk and some action around the idea that Scott Laughton should play more. Some have said this is because he scored a goal in a game where his ice time was low, but of course, we all know goals appear randomly across the full season relative to a player's base skill, right. Right?
No, okay, so goals come in bunches from magic and the hot hand is totally real, so that means he should have played more. Craig Berube said he wanted to get him a bigger role, and he played him as a winger on John Tavares's line in the next game, necessitating Jacob Quillan coming in as the 4C.
This was against the Avalanche. Now, let's think this through. The Avs didn't need to win that game. They are very much in the coast to the playoffs portion of their season. They can prioritize health, happiness, individual goal records, fun, whatever the hell they like. That's the reward for all that winning. So they didn't need to stir themselves to play the Leafs hard, particularly not on the road. They got a couple of goals early, and they just maintained. By the end of the game, they'd added some more without really trying all that hard.
Quillan was not up to the task, and during the maintaining period by the Avs, he didn't play. Once it was 3-0 he started getting shifts occasionally and finished with 6:15 in all-situations with no special teams play. That was a waste of a roster spot in order to do this Laughton promotion a lot of people clamored for.
Laughton played just under 14 minutes at five-on-five and did his usual special teams shifts. When Quillan sat down, he started playing on the fourth line, and when Quillan stood up, he stayed on that line playing with Quillan and either Steven Lorentz or Easton Cowan.
So that experiment is now over, per the lines below from practice. Who thought this was a good idea, Berube himself or Brad Treliving? I believe I'm supposed to answer that with a short declarative as if I know for sure, but I don't know, so I won't. I think the entire exercise was absurd, though. Goals aren't magic indicators of ability to do the things on the ice that lead to winning games, and Laughton's ability in that long list of things has a natural level where he is a value add. Top six ain't it.
Matias Maccelli is just ever so slightly better in a way that might generate more offensive flow, but not in a way that is particularly significant. He shouldn't be in the top six either. But then the Leafs just didn't sign Juni Korn, the hottest winger out there, so this is who they have.
Lines
Mark Masters via Daily Faceoff from yesterday's practice and confirmed today as the playing roster:
Bobby McMann - Auston Matthews - Max Domi
Matias Maccelli - John Tavares - Matthew Knies
Easton Cowan - Nicolas Roy - Nicholas Robertson
Steven Lorentz - Scott Laughton - Calle Järnkrok
Jake McCabe - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Morgan Rielly - Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit - Troy Stecher
Joe Woll - confirmed starter
Anthony Stolarz
The Game
The Leafs drifted back into a total lack of control over the puck all over the ice in the last few games. Passes were stupid and didn't connect, players were standing still to receive them, allowing a lot of legs and sticks to proliferate in between. Puck carrying worked as long as no one tried to take it. Taking it proved easy and exiting the zone remained painful to watch. Play devolved into individual acts that didn't allow for any flow to the game. Eventually they just reacted to the other team until the final horn.
So, you know, don't do that.
This is also the Sittler appreciation game, and there will be lots of old faces on hand to honour him.
Ahead of tonight's game, the @MapleLeafs will be honoring Darryl Sittler's historic 10-point night that occurred nearly 50 years ago! 🔟
— NHL Media (@NHLMedia) January 27, 2026
Read more about Sittler and this seemingly untouchable record ⤵️https://t.co/Ahzt2dtJZi
And this is a lot of Leafs content, so have a listen:
