(SportsNetwork.com) – Randy Carlyle was less than pleased with his team’s most
recent effort, and he hopes to see a better effort when his Toronto Maple
Leafs host the rebuilding Buffalo Sabres in Tuesday’s clash at Air Canada
Centre.
Toronto fell to 3-4-1 on the season after losing 4-1 in Saturday’s home test
against the Boston Bruins. It was the Maple Leafs’ third loss in four games
and dropped the club’s home record this season to 1-4-0.
The head coach made sure his feelings were known following another
disappointing effort from his troops.
“Frustration, anger … that is the two things that were front-and-center from
a coaching staff’s perspective,” Carlyle said.
Toronto fell behind 1-0 just 3:27 into the game and the Bruins would build the
lead to four goals before Richard Panik finally got the Leafs on the board
with 5:33 remaining in the third period.
“We didn’t win too many battles early in the hockey game,” said Carlyle.
“Probably for the first 30 minutes we didn’t move our feet and execute. It was
like the Bruins had the puck and we struggled to get it back.”
Jonathan Bernier stopped 21-of-25 shots before being pulled in the third
period. Bernier expects to get the start tonight.
Toronto hopes to take advantage of a young Sabres team that is just 2-7-0 on
the season and has been outscored by a 29-11 margin so far in 2014-15.
Buffalo, however, is coming off a victory, notching a 2-1 road win Saturday in
San Jose.
The Maple Leafs won three of five meetings against Buffalo last season and has
claimed five of the last eight tests in this series. The Sabres have dropped
four straight and nine of their past 10 games at Air Canada Centre.
Buffalo had been shut out three times during a four-game slide before coming
through with Saturday’s surprising win over the Sharks. Michal Neuvirth made
29 saves to earn his first win of the season and Nicolas Deslauriers netted
the deciding goal early in the third period to help the Sabres win for the
first time since Oct. 14 at Carolina.
“It’s a huge win for me and everybody on this team. We worked really hard for
this,” Neuvirth offered.
Cody Hodgson also lit the lamp in the final stanza for the Sabres, who hope to
win two straight for the first time since last February when they close out a
four-game road trip tonight.
Neuvirth will get the start again tonight. He is 1-2-0 with a 3.02 goals
against average this season and 5-3-1 with a 2.96 GAA in 11 career games
versus Toronto.
