LIVE BLOG: LEAFS 6, SENATORS 0

IT'S SO TEMPTING TO WRITE "LEAFS 6, SENS... WHO CARES?"

That's probably pretty close to a paradigm Paul Maurice road game for the Toronto Maple Leafs: Andrew Raycroft, with some help from the iron (two goalposts and one crossbar), blanked the Ottawa Senators 6-0 at Scotiabank Place tonight.

For a Leafs fan, you want to try not to enjoy this too much, since the Mauricemen are very much a work in progress. Six-zip?! Probably a little flattering for Toronto. Any shock at seeing how the Leafs worked tonight after last night's funeral march at the ACC just goes to show how hard is it to get away from sports clichés. People were probably obsessed with whether the Leafs were "up" or "down" for tonight, or whether the Sens might be overconfident after their win last night.

The Leafs simply got it done. Raycroft was solid, the scoring was fairly well spread out and the penalty killers kept Ottawa to 1-for-11 (with a short-handed goal against) on the power play across the two games. It was a nice moment, but the moment's over. Gloating over early-season wins over your rival, rare as they may be, is so gauche.

By the way, did you notice what line Maurice threw out when the Leafs got a late power play during the final minutes, when it was 6-0 and all over but the whining (of which there is much on the Team 1200 as I write)? Instead of putting out Chad Kilger and Darcy Tucker for a shot at a hat trick (both had two goals), he rewarded the fourth line of Bates Battaglia, John Pohl and Matt Stajan with some PP time. If Pat Quinn was still coaching, he would have indulged Tucker's ego and put him out there.

The Sens looked like they pulled the chute after Kilger got his second goal to put the Leafs up by three goals a mere 3:42 in the second period; they'd never admit it, but at that point it was clear the game was over and they were better off to rest up for the Sabres on Saturday night, especially since they were playing without their two new D-men, Joe Corvo and Tom Preissing. That probably gets them off the hook.

If this was junior hockey, Bryan Murray would be perfectly right to bag-skate his team. That's where after the players stink the place out, the coach makes everyone put on practice sweaters and go right back on the ice to skate without pucks. Too bad that's probably barred under the new CBA.

(DIGRESSION: Typical of the Team 1200, the Sens flagship radio station: Raycroft gets the shutout, but Dean Brown and Gord Wilson were in such a pout over their Sens' pitiful performance that they snubbed him in the 3-star selections, instead bestowing them on Chad Kilger, Darcy Tucker and Kyle Wellwood and giving some half-assed reasoning about how the Senators didn't work very hard and didn't really challenge Raycroft. Really? Did they say last night about Martin Gerber? It would have been true then.

It was a rather cryptic decision, seeing how after the third of Wellwood's four assists, Dean and Gord noted how "quietly" he had earned his points. Yet an hour or so later, he was being anointed the first star. Even now, on the post-game show, one of them referred to Wellwood having "the quietest four assists you ever saw." Yet he's the first star and Raycroft isn't one of the three. Strange, that. But that's neither here nor there.)

It's only one game. Not the end of the world for Ottawa and no reason for Leafs fans to go out and get drunk and order lap dances.

It's only two games in, but if a Sens blogger wants to stir the pot, then start a Death Watch on Daniel Alfredsson's captaincy. He wasn't there in either of these games against the Leafs, and while that's a very small sample, Mike Fisher is actually playing like a guy who wants that "C" on his sweater. It's not unreasonable to suggest that Alfie might be better off if he could step back and work on his own game. It isn't entirely rational -- part of the subtext is that Alfredsson is European and Fisher is a good Ontario boy.

Incidentally, one of the callers noted the Sun's Chris Stevenson has broached the topic of Alfredsson's status as captain. Fair or not, he who leads the band has to face the music.

THIRD PERIOD

• After a nice save by Raycroft, the Leafs go down and make it 6-0, with Battaglia zipping a shot over the Rayzer's shoulder. That's all she wrote.
• There's Alfredsson left wide open in front of the Leafs net. Hey, wasn't that Hal Gill's side of the ice? You don't say.
• The Sens crowd is really turning on their team. Ottawans have an admirable tolerance for farce when it comes to local government and the CFL team (when there is one), but from their hockey team... never!
• Not to bite the hand of my ant overlords, but you have wonder... today's Ottawa Sun front page said "Sens flatten Leafs in opener" after Ottawa won 4-1 in Toronto on Wednesday. What verbiage does a six-zip Leafs win warrant?

START OF THIRD: To the surprise of no one, Gerber gets the mercy pull and Ray Emery goes in goal for the Sens, getting a sardonic cheer after making his first save. Surprised Emery didn't try to get one of the healthy scratches to forge a note from his mother... "Dear Mr. Murray: Please excuse Ray from tonight's game. Signed, Rayzer's Mom."

SECOND PERIOD: Leafs 5, Sens 0

• Just to add to Ottawa's anguish, Marian Hossa has a goal and an assist so far tonight for the Thrashers. Fellow ex-Sen Martin Havlat has a goal for Chicago, while Sami Salo scored Vancouver's first goal. Hey, at least the 67's are beating Windsor. (That ought to jinx it.) Tomorrow, the 67's get to see Steagle Colbeagle The Eagle when they take on the Saginaw Spirit.
• In re: the Sens power play. How much did other teams learn about how to shut it down from watching what the Buffalo Sabres did in the playoffs?
• Ottawa had a couple good chances late in the period -- Raycroft stops Antoine Vermette in close. A few minutes earlier, the Leafs goalie bobbled Mike Fisher's high shot, but it the puck deflected wide of the net.
• Alex Ponikarovsky tips Sundin's pass by Gerber, and it's 5-0 for the Leafs with 3:50 left in the second. The Ottawa radio guys, of course, note that the Leafs might have been offside. Right. Explain the other four goals.
• Kyle Wellwood was picked up three assists (poolies take note), but as the Team 1200's Gord Wilson notes, "Dean, you could have picked up three assists in this game." Dean Brown jokes that you can't be too sure: "...you thought Jeff O'Neill was out of shape..."
• You can't make this stuff up: Just as Harry Neale was noting the Ottawa was "certainly getting outworked," which Sen did CBC show? Jason Spezza. Nice touch.
• Quick check on The Office: It seems the writers and producers are trying to play up how secretly hot Pam (Jenna Fischer's character) is. This episode doesn't seem to be as good as last week's, when Michael outed Oscar.
• This is so surreal it's almost hard to enjoy. The Sens are leaking oil three lanes wide, rightfully getting booed, and the Leafs are playing like a reasonable facsimile of a NHL team -- good goaltending, smart puck movement, good special teams, and they're playing with a little jam. What happened to our time-honoured formula of having only two lines working on any given night and relying on the goalie to make about 100 saves?
• On a power play, Jason Spezza makes one of his trademark soft backhand passes into the slot, and it's intercepted, leading to an easy clear for the Leafs. Boos cascade down on Spezza.

MID-SECOND PERIOD: Leafs 4, Sens 0

• The Chris Phillips-Anton Volchenkov defence pair is still shaky -- on the fourth Toronto goal, Volchenkov made a bad read at centre ice and then failed to tie up Tucker eaded to the net, where he was able to pop the rebound past Gerber for his second power-play goal of the night.
• WTF? Halfway through the game and the Leafs are up by four? To hear some people talk today, you would have thought it would take the Leafs all of October to score four goals on the Senators.
• The Sens have extra-pass syndrome tonight: On a 2-on-1, Chris Kelly tries to pass to Alfredsson instead of shooting, and the puck never gets there.
• Oops. While checking on My Name Is Earl (Earl and Randy have fallen in with the sideshow performers from the local carnival), I missed the third Toronto goal, a real doozy. Gerber stops a shoot-in behind the net and leaves the puck for... Thomas Steen, who quickly centres to Kilger for his second of the night.

FIRST PERIOD: Leafs 2, Sens 0

• The Leafs have earned the lead, but a two-goal lead probably flatters them.
• Have to wonder about Ottawa's 50-goal man Dany Heatley a little -- he isn't getting the bounces, fanning in close on a missed chance that led to the rush the Leafs scored their first goal on. Bad luck or something larger?
• You could probably make some money betting on a Leafs defenceman taking two minor penalties in the first period, namely because they're not quick enough to keep up to opposing forwards. Last night it was Wade Belak; tonight it's Andy Wozniewski, who's gone off for two infractions on Patrick Eaves. Neither hurt the Leafs, though.
• There were boos when Daniel Alfredsson carried the puck up the ice, and it sounded a little too loud to have come from the pro-Leafs crowd. Are Sens fans starting to turn against the captain a bit?
• The new Leafs goalie Andrew Raycroft seems to playing with a lot of confidence, pulling out the old Johnny Bower pokecheck to deny Peter Schaefer, who had gone in on an out-of-the-box breakaway.
• In the other net, Martin Gerber seems mortal -- Darcy Tucker (power play) and Chad Kilger (short-handed) have scored to put the Leafs up 2-0. Hey, remember the last time the Sens gave up a short-handed goal at Scotiabank Place? Will Bryan Murray excuse his team's defensive lapse by saying, "Hey, it was Chad Kilger." Don't hate me for writing that; hate the Sabres fan who put me up to it.

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