Surging Toronto Maple Leafs Face Baffling Buffalo Sabres

Toronto is looking to continue their streak of points in five straight games, including two wins in a row, as they return victorious from a sweep in the state of Florida to face the Buffalo Sabres.

No, that isn’t a typo—points in five straight games and two wins in a row.

With the influx of some inexperience has come something the Leafs have missed this season—winning.

While having the combination of "The Monster" Jonas Gustavsson, Carl “Uzi” Gunnarsson, and Christian Hanson in the lineup, the Leafs are undefeated. I know that’s kind of reaching for positives, but surprisingly as of late it doesn’t seem to be that hard to find them when talking about the Leafs.

Toronto continues to lead the league in shots on goal per game, averaging 34.7. They sit 19th in the league in the shots against department at 30.5 per game, and this number has been slowly declining.

As the shots against come down and there is an increased success of not just getting pucks on the net but lighting the lamp, the Leafs are slowly pulling themselves out of the NHL’s basement.

Faceoffs are an important aspect of any hockey game. It determines puck possession, and depending on which zone it is in, it can be the difference between adding to the offensive chances or limiting the ones against.

The Leafs haven’t been great in the faceoff circle, but after having worked hard on it in practice they have now climbed their way into 14th in the league at 49.9 percent.

Hopefully, these stats continue to improve as they come home to the ACC to play the Sabres. Home sweet home isn’t always the case though, and the 2-6-3 record for Toronto is a reflection of this fact for the time being.

The Sabres have dominated the recent contests between these two division rivals, winning eight of the last 10.

Lately, the Sabres have slid out of first in the Northeast Division posting a record of 5-4-1 over their last 10. Despite this, Buffalo has won back-to-back games over the weekend.

I think this Sabres team has been over achieving with their virtually no-name lineup and have been riding the back of their work-horse all-star goaltender.

Ryan Miller, Buffalo’s goalie, leads the league in save percentage and goals against. He will have to be sharp as Toronto’s Phil Kessel and Nik Hagman have been bulging the twine with some consistency lately.

If Toronto can get some additional goal scoring from some of their snake-bit players like Nikolai Kulemin, Jason Blake, and Lee Stempniak, they will give not only the Sabres trouble but all future teams they face.

With some positives on the offensive side of their game the Leafs main focus should be keeping the puck out of their net.

Ron Wilson has been working to no avail all season on getting this team to play a better system in their zone.

If they can keep the Sabres to the outside and keep the front of the net clear for Gustavsson while limiting the odd man rushes and neutral zone turnovers, they will continue this good run they’ve been on.

A win against the Sabres will be a tough task for this Leafs team who seems to be just finding an identity with the goaltending controversy solved by an injury to Vesa Toskala and an injection of energy from some call ups.

The momentum is in their favour, and with the notorious “bounce” going their way Monday night another victory is well with in reach.

Check out Mark "The Hard Hitter" Ritter and I as we throw it down on our live hockey broadcast "Get The Puck Out" On www.MorencySports.com every Saturday night starting Dec. 12 between 5-6 PM and then a wrap up between 11 and 12 PM. Peace!