Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Mind not on the games

It could be that both Toronto and Ottawa were guilty of looking ahead Tuesday night, both teams lost their games as they ponder the Battle of Kanata this Thursday. Ottawa lost a close game to the Devils 2-1. More shocking of the two losses is the Leafs affair, losing to the lowly Chicago Black Hawks 4-1.

Outshooting the Hawks 44-15 did absolutely no good as goaltender Craig Anderson stood on his head to keep the Leafs off the board. former Leafs Steve Sullivan, Bryan Berard and Nathan Dempsey loaded up the space behind Trevor Kidd. The game marked the return of Darcy Tucker to the lineup wearing a visor to protect his injured eye, the game also heralded the return of the visorless look for Tie Domi, perhaps shamed of his manhood by bombastic Don Cherry.

Breakdowns in the Ottawa end of the rink were the story for the Devils/Sens game, as the Sens gave away pucks and left players unattended. Bonk opened the scoring for the Senators, then Elias and Friesen replied for the Devils. Patrick Lalime faced 24 shots in the Ottawa net. letting in two, Martin Brodeur handled 23 for the win.

With the losses Ottawa and Toronto can get back to sharpening their spears and painting their faces, with one night's rest they go back into battle on the Corel Centre Ice on Thursday.

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