from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,

Eight guys in white T-shirts. A single letter on the chest of the shirts. No. 34s on the sleeves and red hearts on the front. They were spelling “MATTHEWS.”

As in Auston Matthews. The star of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then they held up two gold balloons late in the third period to form the number “60” after Matthews potted his long-awaited milestone goal on the season. The building roared the final tally in a 3-0 Toronto victory.

Just another weird moment in a Buffalo season full of them. And a low one. A complete organizational embarrassment.

You can’t question the players’ effort on a night they outshot the Leafs 34-22, and out-attempted them 69-38. Their execution? Pretty inept. But the failures on the ice trace back to the coaches, the GM’s office, the business office and, ultimately, to owner-in-absentia Terry Pegula.

At some point, Pegula really needs to send us some smoke signal that he gives a damn about what is going on here. We assume he does, but we can’t know for sure since we never hear from him or even see him in the building.

Remember that chatter before the season about trying to cut off opposing fans from the building? Epic fail.

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