Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Comparing The Toronto Maple Leafs And Buffalo Sabres

01/18/2017 at 8:19am EST

from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,

The Leafs are already in a playoff spot -- and with so many games in hand they're likely the second-best team in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres hit town off a solid win over Dallas but still last in the division.

Asking Babcock how surprised he was to have accelerated past the Sabres made him recoil after the morning skate.

"I never said that, you just said that right?" Babcock said. "Sometimes when you ask those questions then the next thing that comes out in the media is like I said that. Just so we know, I did not say that."

The room broke up because Babcock made sure to emphasize each of the last four words. He then proceeded to explain himself further.

"To tell you the truth, I don't spend a whole lot of time concerning myself on the other teams. We're building our own product here. We have a lot of work to do. I tried to say that yesterday. I told our players the same thing. We're 41 games in. Let's just try to get better every day. We do that, we have a chance to be a good team moving ahead. That's what we're trying to do."

Now obviously, the biggest thing in the Leafs favor is they tanked for half a season (Garrett Sparks in goal, anyone?) and were lucky enough to win the draft lottery to take Auston Matthews. The Sabres put together two of the worst seasons back-to-back in recent NHL history and didn't get the little ping pong ball bounce either time.

Jack Eichel is a terrific young player. But he's no Matthews. No shame in that. But it's the reality.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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