Pierre LeBrun

And 24 hours later, the excitement for Leaf fans of winning the draft lottery.

I mean, that's as dramatic...

you know, a range of emotions as you're ever going to see, certainly in an off season, I think for a franchise.

And yeah, I mean, obviously it's, you got a lot of people around the league talking about it.

No doubt about it.

Yeah, bang on night and day.

What a contrast for Montreal having to play...

a fast team like Buffalo now.

And listen, Lindy Ruff will tell you too, as he did today, that playing Montreal is totally different for the Sabres compared to Boston too.

So both teams kind of adjusting.

I don't think game one was that great.

I think it was kind of a tepid, both teams putting their feet in the water and trying to get a read on each other.

The most impressive part of the night for me was seeing the way the Sabres closed it down the third period.

They had a two-goal lead.

I don't know how you guys feel, but

I think game management is a rare skill among a lot of young players coming into the league in the modern NHL.

And it feels like a two-goal lead isn't enough for a lot of young players.

And the Sabres, and Lindy Ruff talked about this after the game, the Sabres since December have learned

to play the clock and to do more mature things.

And that was a clinic last night in the third period.