BURSTWhen the Toronto Maple Leafs travel across the border to KeyBank Center, the Buffalo Sabres can kiss their home-ice advantage goodbye.
Sure, it’s still their rink, but with tickets significantly cheaper in Western New York than two hours down the road at Scotiabank Arena, it’s a fair bet that you’ll see more blue and white than blue and yellow in the seats.
Ahead of a home game, the coach often can point to the momentum brought by the home fans. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff knows better — in fact, he’s counting on quite the opposite.
“If we play well, we can take the fans out of the game,” Ruff told reporters on Friday.
Admittedly an odd thing to say ahead of a home-ice tilt, but it seems Ruff is acutely aware that his team’s 11-17-4 record has not inspired much confidence from the Sabrehood. The Eastern Conference basement dwellers are marred in an 11-game skid, which included losses to the struggling Rangers and Canadiens, as well as to the Maple Leafs last weekend.
It’s quite likely most Sabres fans may not be willing to stomach watching a potential 12th consecutive defeat in front of a pro-Leafs crowd
“We’ve got to embrace the challenge. It’s not what you want to see in your building obviously, but we’ve got a challenge ahead of us,” Ruff said. “It’s all about the two points, it’s not about the fans.”
It’s two points the Sabres could use, even if their hopes to end the longest playoff drought in North American pro sports has long since been flushed down the toilet. The three games in four days that the Sabres play against Eastern Conference teams gives them the opportunity to not only play spoiler, but to head into the holiday break with at least a smidgen of optimism.
For the Maple Leafs’ part, their have-spunk-will-travel fans aren’t going to make it easy on the struggling Sabres, whose home record against their cross-border rivals sits at 3-3-0 since the 2019-2020 season.
Leafs star Mitch Marner noted that Canadians cross the border in even bigger numbers for hockey games when the Bills are at home the same weekend, as they are Sunday against the New England Patriots.
“A lot of Toronto and Ontario people are fans of the Bills as well so they come for a two-for-one,” he said, per Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. “It’s always fun to come into this building and then play in front of fan bases that really go loud at each other and get the chants going. So it’s something you enjoy.”
You can watch the Maple Leafs and Sabres face off on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.
