Feb. 11: Leafs 0 vs. Canadiens 5
(Sundin’s banner is raised to the ACC rafters)
Leafs scorers: (none)
Canadiens scorers: Cole (20), Bourque (16), Pacioretty (23), Eller (12), Darche (4)
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Forward lines:Lupul-Bozak-Kessel, Lombardi-Connolly-Crabb, Kulemin-Grabovski-MacArthur, Boyce-Steckel-Brown
Defence pairings: Phaneuf-Gunnarsson, Liles-Franson, Gardiner-Schenn
Goaltenders: Reimer (Loss, 40:00 minutes played, 11 saves, 4 GA) Gustavsson (20:00 minutes played, 2 saves, 1 GA )
Recap, by S-Mo:
On the day the Leafs raised Captain Clutch’ banner to the rafters it was the Canadiens that stole the show and rolled out a Price-y red carpet of their own.
Viking warrior:
The ovation was thunderous for Mats Sundin who wore the C for 840 games as a Leaf. A tsunami of blue and white pride for the man who always put the team first in the truest sense of the meaning, often carrying it on his back, hockey’s version of the image of the mighty Atlas. The 10 minute chorus easily eliminated the reductive, material perspective that suggested Sundin owed more than he had given, in one grand uplifting moment at the ACC.
A video montage of memories to, appropriately, a classical rendition of the U2 tune ‘With or Without You’ kept the fans rapt with attention while it appeared Mats was feeling the vibe, an almost wistful look in his eyes.
A clearly emotional Sundin could barely articulate a sentence to start his speech as fans were amped to pounce with boistrous approval but eventually his words came honest and true to his nature, his appreciation of the game, the team and most importantly the people of Toronto …’the hockey capital of the world’, his touching nod to Pat Burns, Wade Belak, Potsie and Igor Korolev. His leadership still evident as he encouraged fans to support the young current Leafs team.
His closing words honouring another great Leaf, Borje Salming, who guided him when he could least be expected to understand what it would mean on the other side of his career, that he would enjoy every part of being a Leaf and indicated the finality of it, his presence sorely missed.
Sundin’s banner was raised between Armstrong and Salming, fittingly.
Long time teammate Tomas Kaberle, in a nice touch by the Habs, represented in the ceremonial face off circle with Dion Phaneuf.
The game:
After two tough one-goal regulation defeats in a row the Leafs, against a recently hot Habs club – winners of their 3 previous games – were put to sleep in a fine rope a dope from Montreal.
The Leafs came out with speed and tested Carey Price in the first to no avail, outshooting the Habs 14-8 but in the second a soft goal given up by Reimer to Erik Cole immediately after a good penalty kill by the Habs opened the floodgates. A flukey unforced error led to the second goal by Rene Bourque on a nifty pass from Plekanec.
The Blue and White PK unit gave up their first power play goal against this year to go down 3-0 thanks to a Max Pacioretty knuckleball, and then 4-0 on a goal that saw both Phaneuf and Reimer beaten soundly on a great play by Lars Eller. The second frame was not kind to the Leafs in practically every aspect. James Reimer gave up 4 goals on 7 shots in the period.
Jonas Gustavsson started the third for the Leafs to no avail, Mathieu Darche was sprung for a breakaway, again on a nice pass by Plekanec, and scored on Montreal’s first shot against the Monster. The Leafs showed a little life after that, but aside from wanting a piece of PK Subban for mixing it up with Phil Kessel, that was all she wrote; Price and the Habs shut out the Leafs 5-0.
The Leafs hit the road for 3 games next week on a western trip ending with a match against Vancouver next Saturday.
Notes
The Leafs, to a man, wore a Sundin jersey in the warmup…Darryl Boyce is the only player on the Leaf’s roster currently to have played a shift with Mats Sundin…Congratulations to Nikolai Kulemin who became a father for the second time yesterday, wife Rachel had a baby girl.
S-Mo is a Leafs fan and hockey homer in the form of an aggregate artist/writer/human being.
leafs laid a goose egg on Sundins cake