Coming in to tonight’s game, the big story was about how the Toronto Maple Leafs were fighting for their playoff lives and the Buffalo Sabres weren’t. It was a depressing preview for Sabres fans, and before the game began, it was clear that the KeyBank Center was full of Toronto fans, hoping to see their team take a step closer to that elusive playoff berth.
Instead, they saw their team get smoked by a division rival in a game that showed there’s still life in this Sabres squad yet.
Before the game started, the atmosphere in the Key was electric, mostly thanks to the Leafs fans making plenty of noise, but it would be the Sabres who would strike first, thanks to Ryan O’Reilly, who took a sweet pass from Ennis and slammed it home to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.