Maple Leafs Watch
By TERRY KOSHAN -- Toronto Sun
LOOSE LEAFS
Wade Belak has just one goal this season but was second in the hardest shot event at 99.4 m.p.h. What's missing? "I think it would be different if I was on the power play," Belak said, tongue partly in cheek. "It's a lot harder to get a shot through when it's 5-on-5." ... Tucker on Roberts: "I don't expect him to come back in the lineup and be anything less than what he was before he left."
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February 24, 2003
Maple Leafs Watch
By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
PLAYING IT SAFE
Both the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators took the cautious approach after their road games ended on Saturday night, not even opting to go to the respective airports in Montreal and Ottawa to await minimum conditions for takeoff.
"We knew right away (the trip home was off)," winger Tom Fitzgerald said of the snowstorm. "What can you do? Better safe than sorry.
"If we'd made it, we might have had to land in Hamilton (Pearson shuts down at midnight regardless of weather) and bus to Toronto and not get to bed until 4 a.m. Then we'd have to get up to go back to the rink."
After scrambling with booking agents of packed hotels throughout the game as the snow fell, the club was able to get everyone in a new Montreal hotel and fly back at mid-morning.
The Preds were able to get back into their original Ottawa residence and came in about a half hour earlier than the Leafs.
This is Fitzgerald's first Canadian winter and the Massachusetts native admits it has been a doozy.
"It has been cold," he understated. "We had a glimpse of spring the other day when the snow melted and we saw some green grass and then 'boom', it was gone again.
"I've gotta go home and shovel. My poor wife (Keri) is nine-months pregnant and almost due (with the couple's fourth son on March 14) and I don't want her pushing snow out of the driveway. I'd better get back."
Defenceman Wade Belak, who hails from rural Saskatchewan, doesn't see what the fuss is about.
"This is nothing," Belak insisted. 'It's usually minus 50 with 10 feet of snow. We were used to that growing up. Go talk to the (Predators). They have a lot of Western Canadians who will tell you the same thing.
"But the freezing rain here is very scary. You can never be sure what will happen."
