2 weeks Ago By Lance Hornby
Article content If expecting the Ottawa dressing room to be as down as lowest lock on the Rideau Canal after Game 2, it was very high in spirit. Starting with captain Brady Tkachuk, unfazed by the crowd abuse in Toronto, now on the scoreboard himself and full of faith despite their comeback ending in a 3-2 overtime loss Tuesday. “Honestly, there’s not one ounce of panic in here,” Tkachuk claimed.
“We’re looking forward to getting home and for the (Canadian Tire Centre) to be buzzing. “We just try to make it hard to play against us and did that (the Leafs came to a second-period standstill before Adam Gaudette’s tying goal). It comes down to overtime, one shot.
Sometimes the hard work isn’t rewarded, but so be it. This is going to make it that much sweeter. Meaning he expects a comeback down 0-2 once the series shifts.
‘We’re not going to let this deflate us. We’re going home and (a playoff game) has been a long tome coming for our fans. There is a ton of belief.
” For a while, Tuesday looked exactly like so many Ottawa – Toronto regular season games of late, the pesky Sens knocking the skilled Leafs out of rhythm. The excited Ottawa bench rarely sat down in the final two periods, showing the energy that propelled them to their first post-season spot in eight years. “We’re at best when we’re aggressive,” Tkachuk added.
STOLIE STANDS TALL The Leafs were out-hit 44-25 on Tuesday, but their biggest belt wasn’t counted. It came when Anthony Stolarz decided he had enough of Ridly Greig’s accidentally-on-purpose crease crosses. When Grieg tried to get back in the play after one run, going between the Leaf net and the vacated Stolarz, the 6-foot-6 Toronto goalie backed into Greig hard and dumped him in the net.
Both men were penalized, Stolarz for interference. Referee Gord Dwyre camee over for a chat with Stolarz, presumably about bringing the temperature down. “I’m a (big guy), I’ve had no shortage of penalties before,” Stolarz said.
“I just got caught up in the heat of the battle. I didn’t know who it was.” He and partner Joseph Woll each have a playoff penalty now, Woll’s coming last year against Boston.
But they both pale in comparison to grumpy Ed Belfour taking three in the 2004 playoffs alone, the last time a Toronto goalie was assessed. As in Game 1, Stolarz held his team in, making 28 stops, beaten on two deflections. “I just tried my best to control rebounds,” he said.
“It’s fun, it’s playoffs, I just enjoy what I’m doing.” PONTUS PILOTS PENALTIES Pontus Holmberg didn’t score on an early breakaway, but the second line left winger still helped a big Leaf goal anyway. He drew the Artem Zub rip that led to John Tavares’s power play goal.
Whether at centre or wing as he flipped with Tuesday’s OT hero Max Domi, the quiet Swede keeps contributing in the lineup where more well known forwards the past couple of years have failed to stick. “He’s one of the best at drawing penalties,” coach Craig Berube praised of the 28 credited to him in regular season, tops on the Leafs and ninth in the NHL. “To me, his game has gone to another level in the last 20 or so.
He’s way more aggressive, he has the ability to hang on to pucks and win battles. “But for me, it’s the skating. He;s not waiting to be safe, he’s just going.
He was working the corners and at the net most of the night, too, which is important.” PLAYOFF MILES COUNT It seems the Leafs don’t have a monopoly on being battle-tested in the Battle of Ontario. Ottawa, which has Linus Ullmark in goal and 1,300-game veteran Claude Giroux, on Tuesday brought in Nick Cousins, a Stanley Cup winner with Florida last season.
That experience should eventually factor into a series where Ottawa’s lack of post-season pedigree has been a talking point. “As a group we understand how we need to play, in regular season and playoffs,” Giroux said Tuesday morning. “If we play our game the best we can, then we give ourselves a chance to win.
” Little of that was evidenced in Game 1 as they stumbled into penalties and were intimidated by the atmosphere at SBA, a rink they usually play well in. “You step on the ice for the first time in the playoffs, at 37 (his age) or 20, it doesn’t matter, you’re excited, there’s a lot of emotions,” Giroux said. “You just have to be able to control that.
” The presence of fourth liner Cousins partly countered three Leafs who were also on that champion Panthers’ team; Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz. Cousins had some fun with Stolarz in warm-up, crossing the centre line to tap a puck five hole through the pads as Stolarz stretched. “He’s won, he has played in pressure situations and he’s feisty,’ said Ottawa coach Travis Green of getting Cousins in the series.
Green shared Tkachuk’s comments that the Sens wouldn’t be intimidated by being in a hole 0-2 and that the first overtime playoff loss for many of them would be another valuable lesson. CHUCKY CHORUS LINE The Senators didn’t expect their captain to be bothered by the ‘Brady Sucks’ chants heard loud and clear since Game 1. It’s one of the few times SBA has generated something that vocal for an opposing player.
Tkachuk, who looked a bit rattled in Game 1 and missed a breakaway that could’ve changed the outcome was looking pretty satisfied on the bench after his Tuesday goal. “In my eyes it’s a compliment for Brady,” Giroux said of the chant at the morning skate. “You don’t do that if he actually sucks.
“I’ve got booed in Pittsburgh before (as a member of the state rival Philadelphia Flyers) and I’ll be honest, it’s the best games to play in.” Shane Pinto insisted Tkachuk will brush it all off and the jeering would only add “fuel to the fire” for him going forward in the series. TICKETS ARE SCARCE Naturally, the Leafs and Sens players and staff are being inundated with ticket requests.
The veterans usually let a family member take charge. “The understanding with your buddies is they think you get free ones,” Leaf forward Scott Laughton said with a grin Tuesday morning. “That isn’t really the case.
I got a couple of texts about (seats) for the Ottawa games and said I’m paying the same as you, going on Stub Hub.“ LOOSE LEAFS Adam Gaudette of the Sens, who tipped in the late tying goal Tuesday, minded his words when talking about the cross-checking penalty he received against Auston Matthews in Game 1. From the sniping between the two afterwards, Gaudette obviously felt the Leaf captain sold it.
“I don’t know, could’ve been a call, could’ve not been,” the one time Marlie Gaudette said. “He’s a big boy I thought” ..
. For a product of Calahoo, Alta., Berube is getting a crash course in the history of the Battle of Ontario.
“I watched it (from a distance), I didn’t understand it at first,” the Leafs’ coach said. “But there’s some hatred there for sure. I enjoy it” .
.. Green likened Giroux to a peer such as Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.
“He has a passion for the game and loves coming to the rink. That’s one of the biggest things in staying in the league at that age.” Lhornby@postmedia.
com X: @sunhornby.
