HAMILTON, Ont. – To the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL Heritage Classic is a nice perk to the grind of a season full of struggles that has included plenty of interesting moments.
The outdoor game at Tim Hortons Field is something quite a bit different to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's a massive pressure cooker and the crisis around them will only deepen if they lose to the Sabres for the second time in 12 days.
For all their wondrous offensive talents, every talking point in Leaf Nation centers around goaltending. Or the lack thereof. Jack Campbell has been a mess for three months and is now out with a rib injury. Petr Mrazek is starting Sunday's game in Tim Hortons Field but only because he's an NHL veteran.
He's been so bad of late that Erik Kallgren, who relieved Mrazek on Thursday against Arizona, should be starting Sunday but the Leafs are probably making the right call not giving someone their first NHL start in a non-natural setting.
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The numbers are mind-boggling.
The Leafs have the NHL's worst 5-on-5 save percentage since Dec. 7 at a sickly .885. Campbell went 9-2 in November with a 1.27 goals-against average and .959 save percentage, sparking talk of an immediate contract extension.
Since then, he's been a disaster. His numbers were 2.97/.909 in December, 3.57/.880 in January, 3.42/.894 in February and 4.60/.845 in two March games.
With their first full house since Dec. 11 and a chance to take over first place in the Atlantic Division theirs for the taking, the Leafs laid an egg. But for the Sabres, the 5-1 victory in their first trip to Toronto since Dec. 17, 2019, rates as a signature road win on their season.
Mrazek is 10-5, 3.44/.884 for the season and also in a wicked slump. He was at 3.23/.887 in February and is at 5.13/.833 in March – including the 5-1 loss March 2 to the Sabres that saw Scotiabank Arena fans boo him vociferously. He was pulled after giving up four goals on 12 shots over 31 minutes in Thursday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Coyotes. One was a complete fan by Arizona defenseman Jacob Chychrun.
"There is a lot of stuff going on there that makes it obvious to us to give Petr another chance to go back in," said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. "There is the simple fact that he has won 10 games for us this year. He hasn’t played nearly to his ability, but he has won games for us this season. We need to win a game on Sunday."
One of the Leafiest goals against I've ever seen... pic.twitter.com/qGmenjCDia
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 11, 2022
The Sabres need to fire from everywhere right from the opening faceoff of Sunday's game, and they have complete trust in Craig Anderson in their net. How can the Leafs help Mrazek?
"We just need to make sure we're ready to play from the start," Leafs center Auston Matthews said after Saturday night's outdoor practice. "The other night, it took us a little bit to get into the game. Play with poise, play with confidence. We know he'll play with confidence. Stuff like this doesn't rattle him. He wants to be a great goaltender and there's no doubt in our minds he'll bounce back."
General Manager Kyle Dubas said last week he has faith in both of his goaltenders. Of course, nobody who watches the Leafs regularly does but what else can the GM say? TSN reported he's at least kicked tires on Chicago's Marc-Andre Fleury but it's uncertain if Fleury would be interested in Toronto or how the Leafs can manage the salary cap for any deal.
"They have a lot of pressure on them," said Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. "We're just going to go out there, play the same way. We have to be hard on their top lines and just got to compete like we did (in Thursday's 3-1 win over Vegas). When we play that way, we're so hard to play against. it's fun to play on our team when we play that way for sure."
Eichel reflections
The questions this corner asked Jack Eichel after the game Thursday night were boilerplate ones for a player returning to play for a former team. You're just taking his temperature, especially in the wake of the hostile scene in KeyBank Center. Eichel, of course, sent Sabres' fans into a tizzy with his comments but it should be noted everyone has called the place "KeyBank Library" over the years, too. With good reason.
Eichel had done well on Wednesday, talking nearly 15 minutes with reporters. Even his postgame chat Thursday was insightful and included several moments when he praised Buffalo fans. But that one clip? Yikes. That will live a long time. People are outraged. It's going to be one juicy narrative whenever Eichel is back in town next season.
Tweeted Toronto radio host and former Leafs/Sabres defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo: "It was a mixture of sarcasm and frustration. It may rub people the wrong way but who cares? It’s fun when players create a villains profile instead of giving the same old boring answers. Especially when they get booed. That's how real rivalries start. The sport needs more of it."
A Toronto-based podcast featuring Sportsnet YouTuber Steve Dangle ripped Buffalo fans for booing Eichel, but also lashed out at the Pegulas for their rejection of Eichel's medical wishes with his neck surgery and former GM Tim Murray for his obsession over Connor McDavid in the 2015 draft lottery.
Said Dangle: "I feel like the way they looked at Eichel in the McDavid-Eichel draft is the way Sabres ownership looks at the Sabres: 'You're the ugly duckling. You're the other team.'"
Power plays with no juice
Watching the Vegas power play struggle, even with Eichel in the lineup, brings you to thoughts of other prominent teams full of talent who are anemic in man-advantage situations.
Pittsburgh has famously been up and down on the power play at times over the years. Other big-name teams at or near the bottom of the rankings in recent years include Edmonton (2017-18), Nashville (2018-19) and Chicago (2019-20).
"I think sometimes less is more for sure," Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said on Thursday. "When you have so many talented players, sometimes you can overpass, overthink. The goals we're scoring the last couple of games, it's been just good puck movement. So I think if we just take a deep breath, take what the other team gives us, we'll have some success."
The Golden Knights entered the weekend 27th in the NHL on the power play – and a stunning 31st at only 9.4 percent since Eichel debuted in the lineup on Feb. 16.
Not speaking about Eichel but talking only in generality, Sabres coach Don Granato said it's often a case of bravado among top players gunning for a perfect play.
"When you try to orchestrate it, it's almost like you have to have a meeting with the penalty killers before the game and say, 'Hey, will you open that seam for us? Because I know when you move, I can make that play,' " Granato said. "And that's what it looks like when you watch the great, great players and great power plays that struggle. They get a stubbornness to them ... so they force it."
Olofsson gets back his torque
Olofsson seemed like a long-term fixture in Buffalo after his 20-goal rookie season in 2019-20, but he’s a restricted free agent this summer.
Victor Olofsson's game-winning goal Thursday against Vegas got widely overshadowed by Eichelfest and Anderson's 300th career victory but it was an important play to note how he's on the comeback from the oblique injury that had sabotaged his season since Halloween.
It was a hard, quick shot from the faceoff circle that overpowered Knights goalie Laurent Brossoit, something Olofsson has been unable to do much of this season.
"He really had trouble shooting a puck coming back from that injury for a long, long time. You could see it if you actually went back through the film," said Granato. "He overhandled the puck, just to get to where he felt comfortable that he could torque it the way he usually would torque it. And he is back to finally where it's just a quick prep and fire."
They said it
• Anderson said practice Saturday was quite cold because of the wind but it probably didn't compare to the conditions in Ottawa when he shut out the Montreal Canadiens during the NHL 100 Classic in 2017. Said Anderson of the raucous scene: "Just the energy of the fans, I think everyone was 25 beers deep."
• Sabres center Tage Thompson played an outdoor game in Fenway Park as a sophomore for UConn against Maine and called it "pretty sick." But he was used to being outdoors because he lived in Alaska when his father, Brent, coached the ECHL's Alaska Aces.
"It seemed like everybody had an outdoor rink in their backyard," Thompson said of life in Anchorage. "There's one in like every school. Instead of a basketball court is an outdoor rink."
• Rasmus Dahlin on KeyBank Center fans Thursday night: "It was unreal. It's what you play for basically. They help us when we're down a goal. They pumped our tires when it was a close game, too. Then Vic (Olofsson) scores and you hear the crowd goes crazy. It's just the best feeling. To have them have your back and cheering for you, it's amazing. I can't wait for people to come back for sure."
Around the boards
• Five years and $5.1 million per year for Rasmus Ristolainen? The Philadelphia Flyers were negotiating only with themselves. That's a mind-boggling contract.
Yes, Ristolainen said a couple of weeks ago he really wants to appear in the playoffs after a career of more than 600 games has yet to land him a postseason berth. But it's inconceivable he could have passed up such an astonishing contract, even though the Flyers appear to be going south with the likely trade of captain Claude Giroux coming in the next week.
• Quite a nugget mined by veteran Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons: Tim Horton played 1,308 of his 1,445 career NHL games for either the Sabres or Maple Leafs. And, of course, it's Buffalo vs. Toronto in Tim Hortons Field in Sunday's Heritage Classic in Hamilton – the city where the first Tim Hortons doughnut shop opened in 1964.
• Tim Hortons Field will be the third Hamilton venue to host NHL games. The others were the Barton Street Arena, which hosted 63 Hamilton Tigers games before the franchise moved in 1925 to become the New York Americans, and the downtown arena first named Copps Coliseum.
Now known as FirstOntario Center and the home of the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, Copps hosted eight NHL neutral-site games from 1992-94 and six of them involved either the Leafs or Sabres. Copps is most known for being the site of Mario Lemieux' iconic overtime goal that beat the Soviet Union in the 1987 Canada Cup.
