After "O, Canada" was sung at full-throated volume, it took just 16 seconds of play for the first "Go Leafs, go" chant to roll through KeyBank Center.
It took 3 minutes, 51 seconds for the first Ryan O'Reilly goal to hit the net. And 4:27 for the second. It was 3-0 at 7:14 when Don Granato called a timeout and 4-0 at 12:09 when Granato gave Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen a merciful and well-deserved hook.
What in the world was that display Tuesday night?
It was one team you can tell is bent on snapping its first-round malaise on the road to a Stanley Cup. And another that has had lots of good moments this year coming up woefully small in a big spotlight.
And again at home. Or was it really home?
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The Sabres should consider themselves lucky after their 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs: So few of their fans kept their tickets for this one that there were hardly any boos after that nightmarish first period.
Just plain odd to hear the home team head to the locker room in a 4-0 hole after 20 minutes and feel mostly cheers echo around the building.
The Sabres' defensive play and goaltending have collapsed since the calendar hit February to levels that are hard to believe.
This was the fourth time in six games Buffalo has allowed five-plus goals in a game. The Sabres had done that once in their previous 25 games.
"Honestly, it looked really easy for them out there," said winger Alex Tuch, who was on the ice for the first three Toronto goals. "We allowed it to be easy for them."
You felt bad for Luukkonen but he seems to have suddenly hit a wall too. In February, he's running a 5.37 goals-against average and .855 save percentage. That often puts you in range of getting out the E-ZPass and heading back to Rochester.
Granato, however, was defiant about his goalie. He came into his postgame news conference bent on making the point this wasn't about Luukkonen. And he was right to a certain degree. But one thing to note: He hadn't even been asked about the kid yet.
"You can look at the game and say five goals in X amount of games and say, 'Oh my God, is there something going on here?" Granato said. "Well, look at this game. We know we can be better. We know we will be better. We'll move on. I don't think it's a problem that's going to linger is my feeling. I think things will be cleaned up."
We'll see. The collective defensive effort keeps falling short and fell short far too often and Luukkonen hasn't come close to bailing out his teammates in three straight home blowouts.
At least two of the first-period goals have to be stopped and maybe three. The fourth one, a short-side burner by Michael Bunting, simply can't go in. That said, you can't just pile on poor UPL either. He was as shellshocked as the rest of his team.
Did the Sabres even have the puck in the first 10 minutes of this game? It seemed like they were watching the Leafs go for a morning spin at Harborcenter.
It's the ultimate insult to a hockey team to call them soft and you haven't been able to say that about the Sabres much under Granato. But they were squishier than melting ice cream in the first 20 minutes of this one.
At least Granato didn't go home with his timeout like he did in the last home game against Calgary.
There was no physicality along the wall. No attacking the puck in the defensive zone. No one touching the puck in the offensive end. Turnovers all over the place. And then no saves when it mattered.
The Sabres, remember, beat the Leafs three times last year in the final 28 games of the season. They downright punked them outdoors in Hamilton at the Heritage Classic.
But in two meetings this season, it's been ugly. Don't let Tuesday's third-period window dressing fool you.
It's just not much of a rivalry right now. The Leafs had not been in town in more than 15 months and they have much bigger fish to reel in. Like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins.
Tuch got his 100th career goal in the Sabres' three-goal third. This was his first game in Buffalo against the Leafs, and he said before the game that he felt Buffalo's Heritage Classic win changed the rivalry some.
Maybe it did: Seems like it got the Leafs fired up to see the Sabres and make their own point.
"Every game that we're gonna play from here on out against the Toronto Maple Leafs is gonna be a hard-fought battle for the full 60 minutes," Tuch said. "Our two teams aren't gonna like each other. It's the way it goes with rivalries and you don't want to lose to the team no matter where you are in the standings. You really don't want to lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs if you're putting on a Buffalo Sabres sweater."
Would have been nice to see that feeling in the first period. In the end, the hats rained down for O'Reilly's empty netter. What a shot to the gut.
"I don't like it," Rasmus Dahlin said disgustedly. "I don't like when that's happening."
