Game 81: Playing it out

Buffalo's 4-0 loss at home to Toronto leaves one more game to play before it's time to answer more than a few questions.

BUFFALO — Tuesday night’s penultimate game for the Buffalo Sabres was not one that would have anyone clamoring to watch the replay unless you’re a hockey coach.

The Sabres lost 4-0 against the Toronto Maple Leafs and it featured some of the classic Sabres-Leafs tropes. Leafs fans did their best to fill the place, although with 17,160 listed as the attendance, good seats were still available. Those who did turn out, roughly 85 percent of them were fans of the blue and white and that’s just the norm for how things have gone in recent years.

It was a road game at home for the Sabres, but it was a game where they played fine just didn’t cash in because Anthony Stolarz was excellent stopping 35 shots for his fourth shutout of the year. Toronto played it style-wise as if it was a playoff game (tight checking, lots of pucks in deep, little room to move) and the Sabres were comfortable enough in their own way to match that.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played very well despite the score line with 28 saves. One of the four goals was an empty netter and the fourth goal against that came after that saw his teammates fall asleep in front of him to allow Nick Robertson free reign to deke and roof a shot past him, a goal which Lindy Ruff said, “pissed (him) off.”

The Sabres had chances but didn’t convert. The Leafs had chances and did. C’est fini.

“We left a lot of good chances out there,” Ruff said. “Tight game. It was a hard-fought game. We were doing a lot of good stuff against those two top lines, and we were generating enough to win it.”

More from tonight’s loss, a look ahead to Thursday’s season finale, and some college hockey talk because old ties still bind…