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The Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres played what would be most kindly be described as a low event game at Scotiabank Arena, with William Nylander and Victor Olofsson scoring in regulation. Ilya Samsonov had a more difficult night with a sluggish club playing in front of him, but the Leafs pulled out a 2-1 overtime victory on Auston Matthews league-leading 54th goal of the season.
“I am hoping some of the reason why we weren’t great is that we were maybe saving some in the tank for tomorrow night, which we were trying to fight and not do. Coming off of the game on [Monday], you can understand why we were looking ahead a little bit. I am glad we stuck with it.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We kept talking about it. “We are 10 minutes from points,” “we’re five minutes from points,” or “we are right there, so stay with it.” We got our point, and we got the second in overtime. To that end, it is a good night and a successful night.”
Toronto has a quick turnaround, playing the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Thursday night. If the Leafs had the same difficulty getting to Pearson as the Sabres did after the game (Buffalo is playing in Nashville on Thursday), they will be sleep-deprived in the second of back-to-back games against the Bruins. Joseph Woll will get the start and Toronto may have some lineup changes based on whether the flu symptoms that kept Jake McCabe out of the lineup have subsided and if the club's recent trade addition will play.
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The Leafs made another move to bolster their blueline, acquiring veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson from the Washington Capitals for the 2024 third-round pick acquired from the New York Islanders in the Pierre Engvall deal and a 2025 fifth-round pick.
The 30-year-old (who was a junior teammate of Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly) won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019 and was part of the Montreal Canadiens squad who went to the Cup Final. The Capitals are retaining 50% of Edmundson’s $1.75 million salary.
Edmundson can play both the left and right side, which gives the Leafs some flexibility on the back end. With the addition, the club placed William Lagesson on waivers, which means his deal will only result in eating an additional $100,000 of cap space. That could mean that GM Brad Treliving is still in the trade market, possibly to add a depth forward, and that the Leafs could deal off an extra defenseman to recoup a draft choice.
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