ANOTHER ROOKIE MAKES LEAF DEBUT; BUT LEAFS FAIL TO WIN

The Leafs battled the Ottawa Senators for the second time in eleven days, and just lost 2-1, unlike the meeting eleven days ago in Ottawa.

Once again forty-one year old Curtis Joseph started in goal for the Leafs and the Senators countered with Brian Elliot. The last time these two teams met, it had a playoff like atmosphere, but tonight’s game didn’t have that same feel.

The game started out nicely for the Leafs, just like they did when they beat Ottawa 4-3 in overtime. They fore checked well, got the puck in deep, and had a good offensive rhythm going. Both teams traded chances early on, but the Leafs actually hit the net and made Elliot work.

For that hard work, the Leafs opened the scoring on Ian white’s ninth goal of the year. What a smooth skating rush it was by the Leafs, which was created by Curtis Joseph. He took a gamble by coming out to play the puck, and just missed playing the puck in the no fly zone. Joseph was able to backhand the puck around the boards, which was corralled by Jeff Hamilton and quickly skated out of his own zone and played a give and go game with Ian White.

In the Ottawa zone, the Senators defencemen went to play Hamilton which opened up room for White and he promptly scored trough the five-hole.

In this game, another Leafs rookie was making his debut, Phil Oreskovic. Tonight’s game must have been a thrill for the Brampton native since he is a Leafs fan. He played well enough, got himself noticed here and there on a body check and a shot on goal. Also on a turnover, which Ottawa was able to create chances off of, but Joseph bailed out the rookie and the team.

Really, without Joseph in net and the way he played, there’s no way the score could’ve ended up as close as it did. Even though Ottawa didn’t have that many chances to score in the first, they still got off a few good shots. On a few saves, mainly on the Ottawa power play, Joseph robbed Jason Spezza on a one-timer that was let go above the left face-off circle. Then in the second period, Joseph robbed Spezza again on a one-timer, which was also on the power play, and this time with the glove.

The same goes for Brian Elliot; he kept the Senators in the game, after the Leafs out-chanced Ottawa in the first period, and made some really tough saves.

In the second period the Leafs continued to attack the Senators and got off good shots, but couldn’t solve Elliot. As the period wore on, both teams somewhat tightened up their defence and a lot of scoring chances for either side came from the outside, which were easily handled by the goalies.

On a bad bounce, the Leafs got caught at the Ottawa blue line which allowed the former blonde haired clown Daniel Alfredsson a.ka. Dumbass Prick to break in one on one against rookie Oreskovic. And the rookie played smart on that play by not getting in the way of Joseph, but Alfredsson’s slap shot was perfectly placed.

The ice at Scotia Bank Place was real bad, as pucks were bouncing everywhere, and the Leafs got burned by that.

That goal seemed to spark the Senators because the Leafs really controlled the pace of the game and had great puck possession before that goal, but with five minutes to go in the period all that changed. Right before the period expired; the Senators added another goal, this time by Dany Heatley.

Alex Ponikarovsky made a weak attempt to clear the puck along the boards but was out-worked and the puck was passed to the blue line. Where Anton Volchenkov snapped a shot towards goal that was tipped by Heatley, and then off of Matt Stajan’s skate with 47 seconds left in the period.

As the third period began the Senators picked up where they left off and controlled the game but missed the net on a lot of chances and had four shots registered on goal.

Halfway through the period, the Leafs got back on their game and started to gain some momentum, but their scoring chances were kept to a minimum.

The Leafs did have one real good chance on a two on one, but Lee Stempniak completely missed the net on a slap shot.

Then, with five minutes to go, the Leafs really started to press, but Elliot stood tall and turned away the ten shots that came his way. With a little over two minutes remaining in the game, the Leafs coaching staff called for a stick measurement on Jason Spezza, and got booked for having an illegal stick. He tried to play it off by breaking his stick when he noticed the Leafs bench, changed his stick, but didn’t fool the referee’s.

With Joseph pulled for an extra attacker to make it a six on four, nothing happened, and that power play couldn’t get set up, or get a decent shot on goal.



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