Big Apple debacle
Mistakes costly as Leafs lose again
By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
NEW YORK -- The Maple Leafs are having a rougher time than the guys over at Dow Jones.
"That's six big points in a row we just lost," winger Tie Domi lamented last night after Toronto's third consecutive one-goal loss, 5-4 to the New York Rangers before 18,200 at Madison Square Garden. "They (Rangers) were just as desperate as we were. Now we have to gain that ground back."
The troubling common denominators in all three games were the close margin of defeat, some awful giveaways and that all three foes were conference rivals. Oh yes, and Trevor Kidd has been in net, but general manager/coach Pat Quinn was quick to absolve his goaltender of the blame.
"How many tap-in goals did (New York) get tonight? Three?" Quinn said. "He was double-crossed a lot."
Defenceman Jyrki Lumme was among the culprits, minus-3 on the night and guilty of dropping a puck on Bobby Holik's stick that Mikael Samuelsson converted into the winner just 17 seconds after Tomas Kaberle made it 4-3. Forward Tom Fitzgerald's handoff to Matthew Barnaby earlier in the game had erased a 1-0 Leafs' lead.
"The safe play would have been to chip it in low, I should know that," Fitzgerald said. "Sometimes less is more. You'll never see me make that play again. Maybe our problem is we're making the same mistakes as a whole."
Quinn will have another chance to put one of his new defencemen in tomorrow night against the Phoenix Coyotes after losing Wade Belak with a facial contusion in the second period.
Belak, a converted winger who replaced injured workhorse Bryan McCabe last night, stumbled chasing a puck and was rammed head-first into the boards by Eric Lindros.
Lindros was tossed from the game despite not intending to hurt Belak, but the Rangers used his five-minute major as a rallying point.
"Wade got mushed and took some stitches," Quinn said. "But as he told me, it was only his head."
The Leafs scored two more on the power play, giving them eight in four games, a number that took 16 games to reach last season.
Jonas Hoglund and Darcy Tucker had Toronto's power-play goals, while Nik Antropov had a goal and assist.
Pavel Bure had two for the Rangers in his season debut, while Tom Poti and Matthew Barnaby also struck for the Rangers.
Quinn has the option of starting rookie Mikael Tellqvist tomorrow, but won't waiver on Kidd.
"It's frustrating because we are scoring a lot of goals," Kidd said.
"But we're giving up chances, and good ones at that."
