Friday, February 06, 2004
Upset in the Capital
The Leafs battled back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Sens 5-4 in overtime last night.
But if you had told me that the Sens would get a point from a game in which:
they were missing Marian Hossa, Wade Redden, Zdeno Chara, Mike Fisher, Jason Spezza, Antoine Vermette, Vaclav Varada, Anton Volchenkov
have Karel Rachunek and Chris Neil leave the game halfway through
at least half the team was so sick with the flu that there were times there was only six skaters on the bench and there were three or four buckets being passed around
they got bad goaltending from Patrick Lalime
I'd have been happy.
The Sens came out and dominated the Leafs in the first half of the game with what was essentially a split roster like you would see in a preseason game (I'll refrain from saying they were icing an AHL team because Alfredsson, Havlat, Phillips, etc are not AHL players) until the flu and the Leafs took over.
The Sens actually held the Leafs scoreless 5 on 5 from the third period on but Bill McCreary decided to give the Leafs an even further edge when he called Curtis Leschyshyn for highsticking when he was highsticked by a Maple Leaf. Even though the Leafs powerplay was nullified shortly after on a Gary Roberts goaltender interference penalty, the Sens were clearly at a disadvantage with the faster paced 4 on 4 hockey when the Sens were all skating slower then Brad Marsh at that point of the game. The Leafs then scored during the 4 on 4 to tie the game.
But if you had told me that the Sens would get a point from a game in which:
I'd have been happy.
The Sens came out and dominated the Leafs in the first half of the game with what was essentially a split roster like you would see in a preseason game (I'll refrain from saying they were icing an AHL team because Alfredsson, Havlat, Phillips, etc are not AHL players) until the flu and the Leafs took over.
The Sens actually held the Leafs scoreless 5 on 5 from the third period on but Bill McCreary decided to give the Leafs an even further edge when he called Curtis Leschyshyn for highsticking when he was highsticked by a Maple Leaf. Even though the Leafs powerplay was nullified shortly after on a Gary Roberts goaltender interference penalty, the Sens were clearly at a disadvantage with the faster paced 4 on 4 hockey when the Sens were all skating slower then Brad Marsh at that point of the game. The Leafs then scored during the 4 on 4 to tie the game.
