He told Newsday that he was ready for the challenge of what playing in New York might bring because of his time in Buffalo.
"Buffalo prepared me,” Lehner told Newsday. “It couldn’t be any worse. Buffalo would prepare me to go to Toronto. It was so bad there sometimes. You would walk out to games and the game hadn’t started and people are already booing. It’s an incredibly passionate fan base and they’re filling that building, but it can be miserable in that rink.
“Everyone talks the Toronto media and Toronto is the toughest city in the league to play in, don’t get me wrong,” added Lehner, clarifying he wants to see his former teammates do well. “But Buffalo is not easy to play in. The media is incredibly hard. I’ve been in that negative spiral. I’ve been caught in it for a couple of years. It’s really tough and you start to lose perspective. I’ve moved on. I don’t care what anyone in Buffalo says anymore.”