Toronto Maple Leafs: Old habits come back to bite them against Sabres

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost for their first time under Keefe with old habits coming back to bite them against the Buffalo Sabres.

After getting off to a promising 2-0 start, the Toronto Maple Leafs unravelled in the second period losing 6-4 to the Buffalo Sabres.

In his return to the NHL since being demoted to the AHL, Michael Hutchinson allowed four goals in the second period which continued a trend where he’s given up four or more goals in each start.

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While the team will continue to defend their backup goalie, this is a trend that cannot continue considering the team will need to find a way to win in games that Frederik Andersen isn’t starting. Sure, the Leafs can help him out defensively by cutting out the mistakes but it doesn’t help when your backup is giving up goals off the rush and without a lot of traffic in front of the net.

There were some plays where the Leafs didn’t do a good job of pressuring the puck carrier or account for Jack Eichel coming out of the box or get caught making some questionable turnovers especially when Auston Matthews turned the puck on an errant pass in his own end.

Despite that, the Leafs still kept the game close and could have tied it if they could have found a way to beat Linus Ullmark late in the third period. Unfortunately, the team can’t continually be looking to make a comeback when their goaltending goes south, it didn’t work under Mike Babcock and it won’t happen with Keefe.

"“It’s one of those things where you think in 10 years pro you’ve gone through pretty much everything and then hockey throws something new at you,” Hutchinson told reporters after the game.“You can choose to dwell on it and have it kind of take over your life and be negative or miserable about it, or you can take it as a learning experience,” he added. “Go over and watch the video, see where I can improve to get my game back on track and just be positive and move forward. If you dwell on it too much, it’s a long season. It’s only November still so there’s a long way to go.”"

Hutchinson is right, there is still a long way to go in the season and there is another back-to-back scenario next week against the Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche. If he gets another chance to play, it might be the final one if he falters.

If that’s the case Kyle Dubas is going to have to decide whether Kasimir Kaskisuo is ready for another shot in the NHL or if he has to look elsewhere. The team will probably try to pinpoint some of the mistakes they made defensively that allowed Buffalo to get back into the game but it won’t mean much if they can’t get their back up goalie to stand tall.

What were your thoughts on the game tonight? Who deserves most of the blame for the loss? Let us know in the comments below.