My friend who lives in Toronto had season tickets for the Leafs and got tickets for game two but couldn't make it so they asked me if I wanted to take the trip from London to see the game but I refused. After watching the game I now wish that I would've purchased the tickets and scalped them to some Leafs fan for $250 a piece because that was by far our poorest performance in the playoffs yet.

We started off the game pretty well in the first few minutes of the game but it was downhill from there. The best offencive chance came early in the first period as Stu Barnes had a break-away on Cujo and Joseph came up big, changing the momentum of the game. A little while later, the Sabres turn the puck over which leads to Sullivan's goal after Roloson makes some unbelievable saves. Then things got worse. Seconds later the defencive pairing of Zhitnik and Smehlik are caught way out of position and Sundin noticed that and set up Cote who would come on a break-away on Roloson and score. To sum up our performance in the first period, our passing was not even close to being up to mark, besides Rasmussen we didn't finish off our checks, didn't play as a team, couldn't clear the puck out of the zone, our defencemen didn't join the rush (where was Zhitnik in the first period), we iced the puck more times than needed, had far too many turnovers and couldn't establish anything offencively. Roloson played well but didn't get any offencive or defencive support. After being spoiled by the kind of effort the Knights put out in the OHL playoffs I found this even more disappointing from a Sabres prospective.

I saw more of the same in the second period. Toronto clearly won the boards in both ends of the ice. The Sabres on paper are the more aggressive team but you wouldn't know it after watching the game tonite. On our first few power plays we passed the puck around excessively and passed up the puck when we had a clear look at the net with the extra man advantage. But the power play was very impressive on the one which we scored on as we kept the puck in the zone well, cycled the puck and shot when we had an open shot. Barnes has played much better in this series especially on the power play. Shortly after we went shorthanded and must've had more chances than Toronto did shorthanded. Brown was a workhorse on that particular penalty kill. Toronto made it 3-1 on Berezin's goal off the faceoff. On that play McKee failed to take Sergei Berezin in the slot and so did Barnes. Poor defensive play on McKee's part even though he made it up with a nice shot block moments later. The period ended with Toronto on the power play and Buffalo continued to be incapable of clearing the puck out of our zone on the penalty killing unit (why is Peca even on the penalty kill) and Toronto had all the momentum going into the third period.

While you could not blame Roloson for the first three goals Roloson allowed, the Leafs fourth goal is clearly Roloson's fault. Perreault scored two minutes into the third period to make the score 4-1 Leafs by skating past Patrick and slipping a soft goal right through Roloson's pads. Then the Sabres had a possible three-on-one but Zhitnik missed yet another pass and the puck went to Cujo, blowing a huge odd-man rush which could've put us back in the game. The Ward-Peca-Varada line was silent tonite and that affected us offencively.

After a horrendous power play effort on one power play, they redeem themselves on the very next power play as they cycled the puck well, got the puck to the net and Stuuuuuuuuu scored his second goal in two games!

Unlike in game one, the officials favoured the Sabres tonite. Cote must've been called for a penalty ten times tonite. Then on a 4-on-3 advantage for the Sabres, we scored once again on the power play and guess who scored.... Stuuuuuuuuu! What a power play! Once again Barnes does what he does best and that is scoring in streaks. All he had to do is get out of his slump as his goals come in bunches.

Then with all the momentum in our favour, Smehlik blew the game for us. He was caught out of position and was at fault for yet another goal. He was the worst defenceman on the ice tonite bar none. We had all the momentum and then Smehlik fails to take responsibility in his own end on defence which should be his top priority at that stage of the game. So for the record, Smehlik was to blame on both Cote's break-away goal and this three-on-one which clinched the game for the Leafs. While Smehlik worked well on the penalty kill, there was plenty to be desired on five-on-five situations.

To finish the Sabres off, Holzinger and Zhitnik take two stupid penalties in the crucial moments of the game when we were trying to come back on the Leafs. The Leafs scored once again on an empty net and I'll give you 42 guesses who was once again caught out of position and was at fault for that goal.

We are the more physical team so we cannot let the Leafs hit us around. We need to drastically reduce the amount of turnovers by our defence as the Leafs did in this game. We also need to clear the puck out of our end. Roloson did all he did but we need to be more responsible defencively whether if Roloson or Hasek is in net. Our first line also needs to step up as they did in the Ottawa and Boston series.

This was by far the worst defencive effort from the Sabres in the playoffs and I'm glad I didn't have to witness that massacre of the Buffalo.