Too Much for Toronto

Too Much Scoring, Too Much Hitting, Too Much Speed and Too Much Heatley, in short it was a case of Too Much for Toronto.

The Ottawa Senators administered a lesson in hockey Saturday night, as the Sens dominated the Maple Leafs from the one minute mark. It was Dany Heatley night in Toronto, as the Senator scored four goals on the way to an 8-0 thumping of the Leafs.

Ottawa outplayed the Leafs in every category Saturday, the Sens were far too fast for a Toronto team that appeared to be standing still at times. Watching wave after wave of Senators cross the blue line and take shots on a beleaguered Ed Belfour. Belfour lasted until the fifth goal, at which point Pat Quinn realizing that his goaltender had been abandoned for the night pulled a switch. Enter Michael Telqvist who at least can claim to have held the Sens to only three more goals on the night, though he can't really claim that his team mates picked up their game for him either.

Heatley could do no wrong on the night, he was in constant motion through the game and ran pretty well unchecked deep into the Toronto end. While he was filling the net in the Toronto end, Dominic Hasek was doing his part on the Ottawa part of the ice, Hasek turned aside 27 shots on the way to his shut out. Though he was only really tested a handful of times through the game, the majority of the Leaf chances were perimeter shots at best.

Needless to say Bryan Murray was rather happy with his teams performance, though he admitted the one sided win was a freak compared to most Leaf Sen matchups. Over in the other dressing room, Pat Quinn was dissecting his teams play on the night and suggested that they were far too individual on the ice and not playing as a team of late, hesitant to take the body and allowing far too many chances for the opposition.

The big win for Ottawa should do a fair amount to keep the folks back home in a good mood, the Toronto/Ottawa rivalry is becoming one of the best in the league. Ottawa fans love nothing better than a win over Toronto, an 8-0 slaughter at the Air Canada Centre might just be good enough for a Bank Street parade!