News

There was a lot of pain in the Toronto Maple Leafs' weekend, leavened by a little consolation.

The pain came in a 6-5 overtime loss to the speedy, skillful Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, the second time in a row the Maple Leafs have lost to a quicker National Hockey League opponent.

On a more personal level, pain was also felt by Leafs centre Kris Newbury, who was taken from the ice on a stretcher in the third period after Penguins forward Robert Petrovicky rocked him with a punch to the chin that knocked Newbury's helmet off, toppling him backward and causing him to hit the back of his head on the ice.

Consolation came with the knowledge the Leafs were able to come back from being down three goals against such an explosive opponent and take the lead. On Thursday, the Leafs could not keep up in a 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators and they wound up taking too many penalties trying to reel them in. It was the same story in Toronto's previous game against the Penguins, too. The Leafs gave the Pens 10 power plays, which led to five power-play goals and an 8-2 loss on Jan. 20.

The consolation on a personal level was that Newbury regained consciousness fairly quickly as he lay on the ice at the Air Canada Centre. He was talking and responding to questions by the time he was wheeled off the ice for a trip to hospital for tests.

Once he saw his linemate was okay, at least in his eyes, fellow Leafs fourth-liner Wade Belak felt free to indulge in some humour. Asked if he spoke to Newbury as he was taken away on a stretcher, Belak said: "I just said, 'Good job, way to wreck our shift.' "

(The stats sheet confirmed it was, indeed, the last shift of the night for Belak and the centre of that line, Travis Green.)

Yesterday, the Leafs said that tests showed Newbury did not suffer a skull fracture or spinal damage.

As far as the team is concerned, what can be taken from Saturday's loss is the old question: is the glass half-full or half-empty?

In three nights, the Leafs lost to an elite team in the Predators and to a team that is headed to that status in the Penguins. So, do you say the Leafs are simply not good enough to play with the big NHL's boys or did they show enough on Saturday to think they might be all right once injured forwards Darcy Tucker and Kyle Wellwood get healthy?

Well, as Leafs head coach Paul Maurice said about Saturday's game, "it wasn't easy."

On the plus side, the Leafs stayed out of the penalty box for the most part. They gave the Penguins just three power plays, but did give up a power-play goal.

"I think staying out of the penalty box was the big thing," Maurice said in comparing Saturday to the other two losses to the Predators and Penguins. "We gave ourselves a chance to win. But it was an unusual game. I don't know how else to say it."

What Maurice seemed to be saying was that the officiating was unusual. The standard for infractions was much tighter in the first two periods than it was in the third, with the whistles coming out again in overtime, although the coach stepped back when this was pointed out. "I don't have an answer for you," Maurice said.

Aside from the return of their on-ice discipline, the Leafs continued to demonstrate that their size can compensate for differences in speed. The first line of Mats Sundin and twin towers Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky controlled the puck for long stretches along the boards deep in the Pittsburgh zone. They scored two quick goals late in the second period to put the Leafs back in the game after the Penguins had built a 3-0 lead.

"I think we're growing into our size a little bit," Maurice said, "Sundin's line especially. He's playing a little more snarly game. We've got six good-sized men in our top nine [forwards].

"We've got some size and we're trying to use it intelligently so we're not in the penalty box. In the last two or three weeks, I think we've done that."

The trouble is, skill won out. After the Leafs missed a scoring chance in overtime, two of the Penguins' prodigies, Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin, combined for Staal's third goal of the game.

Maybe the Leafs were looking at what's in store for them the next few years. Or maybe not. "It was a painful loss," Maurice said. "But we'll survive."