Ville Leino's Really Earning That $27 Million

Plenty of people scoffed when the Buffalo Sabres and their First Bank of Terry Pegula gave forward Ville Leino a six-year, $27 million contract over the summer. Leino was an utter failure with the Detroit Red Wings and barely put together more than a solid playoff run with the Philadelphia Flyers to that point in his career.

Worth $4.5 million against the cap per year? Hell and no. Predictably, Leino's been awful for Buffalo: three goals, seven assists in 35 games. The numbers are bad, but it's the little things that illustrate why the experiment has been a failure so far, like this play on Wednesday night at United Center in Chicago.

This is Leino's known weakness. He's incredibly adept at hanging on to the puck and waiting for the right opportunity, but sometimes -- okay, often times -- he gets too fancy with things. This would be Exhibit A.

After this play, which occurred while the score was tied at two, the Blackhawks reeled off three more goals and won the game by a final of 6-2.