Tonight’s meeting between the Toronto Maple Leafs and division rivals the Buffalo Sabres is an interesting one for many reasons. Most interesting would probably be the sudden turn-around by the Buffalo Sabres. Tanking the league’s standing last April, and now sitting almost atop of them in December.
Surely the addition of top prospect Rasmus Dahlin at the 2018 NHL entry draft helped, but was that the main reason? No. While Dahlin has been great, Buffalo is not rushing him into his future role as their number 1 D. Playing an average of 19:38 per game, third among the Sabres defenseman.