It never gets old.

The Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs clashing at HSBC Arena. Thousands of fans of the Leaves making the trip down the QEW, clad in their blue and white, some waving those tin foil Stanley Cups. Ahh those Stanley Cups. How many of these people were actually alive last time the Leaves won it all?

Tonight at HSBC Arena, both teams engaged in a sultry snoozefest. Plenty of missed opportunities but a scant few scoring chances. Both goaltenders, Toronto’s Vesa Toskala and Buffalo’s Ryan Miller, came up when they had to. But in the end it was Miller coming out on top, stopping all 35 shots he faced as the Sabres beat Toronto 1-0. The win now places Buffalo as 7th seed in the east standings, a point ahead of the idle New York Rangers.

Buffalo finally broke open the scoring almost midway through the third, when Paul Gaustad took a feed pass from behind the Toronto net from Dan Paille to stuff the puck through Toskala. “I was so glad to see Gaus get one tonight” said a smiling Ryan Miller. “He’s been having a tough time of late and this one had to feel good.”

Forward Jason Pominville said that fatigue might have become a factor late in the game, as the Sabres were coming off back to back games, but the key was to play smart. “We tried not to make any dumb mistakes late in the contest, but really there was some fatigue but nobody wanted to show it.” A tired but happy Paul Gaustad added “We’ve got two days off now? That’s going to seem like a vacation.”

Lindy Ruff stated that he was not too concerned about fatigue, but rather that Buffalo minimize mistakes. “We didn’t give a lot of scoring situations, we didn’t give up odd numbers, we even managed to control a good part of the play, even in the third period.”

Toronto got a late power play opportunity thanks to a tripping call on Brian Campbell at the 17:23 mark, and with the goalie then pulled a 6 on 4 skater advantage. When asked what a team does to counter such an attack in that game situation, Ruff replied “Pray”, drawing a hearty laugh. “You get a bounce. You can’t be as aggressive up top. You just sit in the shot lanes and make the guys shoot around you. It almost becomes like a 5 on 3 situation.”

The Sabres now head to New York for a huge showdown game against the Rangers (at this point with the standings as tight as they are, what game isn’t huge?). The Leaves head home and now get to enjoy a five game homestand.

As I headed home, I popped my head into Washington Square Lounge, our favorite postgame hangout, and Bob the owner was busy serving up the suds and platters of wings to plenty of hungry and thirsty Leaves fans. Hey Toronto Nation! We hope y’all had fun here in B-Lo! Come back again on March 21 and spend your loonies on steroids… and hope your ride back up the QEW is as somber then as it is tonight.

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