Kirill Marchenko scored the fifth hat trick of his career in his 300th NHL game, and the Maple Leafs still lost 5-4 when Owen Power scored in overtime for Buffalo. His third goal, at 16:51 of the second period, made it 4-2, and both Sabres goals that tied the game arrived in the third.
The mechanism had two parts. John Tavares, who had two assists, left early in the third after colliding with Josh Norris, and Dennis Gilbert and Mattias Samuelsson scored for Buffalo in that same period. Goaltending did not separate the teams: Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 26, and Auston Matthews scored. The gap came from what happened after Toronto's top-line production had already been spent.
The Leafs also acquired Aatu Räty from Vancouver, sending Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr the other way. It is a depth swap, and its value rises if the Tavares collision costs him games. His status is the number that decides whether this loss was a one-night anomaly or a lineup problem.