Leafs 3 v. sens 5: Fisher sinks Buds

Game Recap
I will not lie. I forgot that there was a game last night. Toronto, still more Marlies than Maple Leafs, dropped to 3-3 in the pre-season after coming out on the short end of a 5-3 decision. I only caught about five minutes of the third but I still managed to see the most heartbreaking play of the pre-season.

After dueling end to end rushes the puck found itself in Public Enemy #1's skates. Alfredsson compliantly looked down in an attempt to locate the puck while simultaneously getting on the trolley tracks. Lo and behold Ponikarovsky comes flying into the picture from offscreen. "Great! revenge for that Tucker hit!" Alas, Alex pokechecked the sens' captain. I guess he wanted to take an eighth shot. Revenge will have to wait for another game. Oh well. Since I missed the game, here are a couple of highlights from opposing bloggers.

The Fans' Eye View

On the flipside, it was another piss poor performance from the Russian that was supposed to save us. Murray gave Kaigorodov every chance to succeed even though he took him off the Alfredsson line. He was lined up with red hot Denis Hamel and Patrick Eaves, who has an uncanny ability to find the net, and yet he still didn't generate much in the way of offensive chances.
Chris McMurty, Hockey Country

The post game scrum around Mikael Tellqvist was telling, the reporters and the now embattled Leaf backup seemed resigned to the fact that he has probably played his last game in a Leaf uniform. Mikael expressed a hope that a decision would be made soon as it is hard on both him and his fiancee not knowing what is happening.
The Meatriarchy, The Battle of Ontario

The Final Word

With seven of Toronto's starters missing from the lineup, last night's game against Ottawa was hardly a barometer for the season. Instead, it gave head coach Paul Maurice yet another look at the many Leaf hopefuls. And with three games remaining on the pre-season schedule, several players had more than just winning on their minds. Forwards John Pohl and Alexander Suglobov hoped to land a roster spot by scoring goals, while goaltender Mikael Tellqvist simply wanted to stop more pucks than backup candidate J.S. Aubin has so far this pre-season.
Michael Traikos, National Post

And because sens fans love to talk about the playoffs here is a video to remind them of them successes. Pause at the end and see some hilarious regular season points total versus playoff games statistics. Pay close attention to 2000-2001. I wonder who swept them?