If anything was certain to get them shaking in their Bauers, it would be the presence of that great Senator Killer, Gary Roberts, who terrorized them and shattered many a playoff hope during his four years in Toronto.
So what better night to hold a pre-game tribute to the now retired Leaf, surely one of the most popular ever?
For good measure, the Leafs even made it seem like Roberts scored half of his goals against the Senators. Every other highlight had Roberts putting a puck past a Senator goalie, mostly Patrick Lalime.
Then they even had Roberts drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoff.
Didn’t work, though.
The Senators got all the breaks on this night. Shean Donovan got credit for a goal that Toronto defenceman Ian White batted in with his glove and Daniel Alfredsson scored on a penalty shot after Milan Michalek was hauled down by Luke Schenn.
That was good enough for them to hang on for a nervy 2-1 win that had the Senators scratching and clawing at the end.
It was the first time the Senators won a game by a one-game margin and that winning margin was a penalty shot.
The penalty shot was the sixth of Alfredsson’s career. He’s now 3-3.
The Leafs made it close when Matt Stajan scored a third-period, power-play goal, but Pascal Leclaire, who faced 26 shots, didn’t allow anything else.
“The first (win) is something I’ve been looking for for a long time,” said Leclaire.
“It’s a great feeling, you know. It’s doesn’t feel like you’re part of a team and you’re helping your team until you get a win, as far as a goalie is concerned.
“It’s been a while and it’s a pretty fun night for me.”
Senators coach Cory Clouston said there wasn’t much difference between this game and the team’s 5-2, opening-night loss to the Rangers except the result.
“I think the difference was that we were a little more patient, a little more poised,” he said.
“We still missed a handful of good opportunities, and goaltending was good on both sides.
“I thought we had the game in control for the most part until about the last 10 minutes. We got a little panicky. They came on and Pascal kept us in at the end.”
The loss left the Leafs, now 0-2-1, still looking for their first win.
It is also guaranteed to start a new round of questions about the team that, without so much as a slight blush, dubbed itself “Canada’s Team” during an over-the-top video salute to themselves.
Coach Ron Wilson was blunt.
“We stunk, period,” he said.
He promised that the Leafs will be skating long and hard without the puck Wednesday.
“Get there early,” he said.
In goal for the Leafs, making his first NHL start, was Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson, the goalie of the future.
Whether he or Vesa Toskala would start against the Senators had been the most-asked question here over the last three days.
Was Toskala – with a 4.94 goals-against average and a percentage of .800 to show for four periods of play over two games – finished as the team’s No. 1 goalie?
Was the job Gustavsson’s for the taking? The 24-year-old goalie was perfect in the pre-season. He stopped every shot he faced in three periods of action. He then stopped 16 of 19 shots in two periods against the Washington Capitals, after Toskala was lifted.
The speculation was so intense that Wilson tried to quell it, saying Toskala didn’t do anything wrong. He simply wasn’t playing.
“I didn’t think he was going to play 82 games this year,” said Wilson.
“This is our third game and the Monster is getting a start. It’s nothing more than that.
“I feel bad for Vesa that he’s being put in this position when he hasn’t done anything wrong.
“He’s a good goalie and he’s going to work hard in practice and he might start the next game, he might not. I can’t tell you. I trust he’ll get the job done.”
The win earns them a reprieve from the heat they’ve been under over the last few days, and they carry a win into their home opener on Thursday.
“It’s one game into the season,” said Clouston.
“Maybe you guys are panicking but we’re not. If this is 50 games into the season and you lose a game, I don’t think the world is coming to an end.
“And Toronto’s a good team. They shouldn’t be panicking or worrying, either.
“They’ve got a good club. They work extremely hard, and this division’s very, very tough.”
Alex Kovalev said very much the same thing.
The only panic around the team was being created by the media, he said, tired of being asked why the Senators can’t score. Give us a break.
“It takes two, three games, not so much to get the chemistry, but to get into the game and get the feel of playing real games,” he said.
“I don’t think one games is such a big problem.
“You should be positive. If you do a lot of good things, you’ll score goals, and tonight, if we score some goals, we’ll be talking about different things (today).”
Well, they didn’t score that many on Tuesday night, but he’s right.
We’ll be talking about something else today.
Source The Ottawa Citizen
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