04-25-2004, 02:45 PM
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#23 (permalink)
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Assistant Captain
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Centre Ice
Posts: 3,946
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Re: Niewendyke a no go for Sunday
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Originally Posted by Donny
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- Nieuwendyk out Sunday, Sundin may play
Maple Leafs' captain Mats Sundin may be back in the lineup on Sunday. The Leafs are also expected to dress Wade Belak but the team's leading playoff scorer Joe Nieuwendyk will not play.
Sportsnet.ca - Toronto Maple Leafs' captain Mats Sundin spoke to reporters after practice today and denied a Globe and Mail report suggesting that he won't play for remainder of series with Philadelphia.
"There's a huge improvement in the last three or four days," Sundin said after practice Saturday. "It's a lot better.
"It certainly is moving in the right direction. My feeling is that, the way it feels right now, I'll be back in this series for sure."
The Leafs' forward will make the trip to Philadelphia and a decision will be made after the morning skate whether he will play in Game 2 on Sunday. He is listed as questionable.
Leafs' centre Joe Nieuwendyk re-aggravated his back injury during the Leafs loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday and will not play Sunday.
Nieuwendyk told Quinn during Game 1 that he could not continue.
Toronto's leading scorer in the playoffs - he scored five goals against Ottawa - missed a game in that series with a sore back and, although Quinn wouldn't verify the nature of the injury, the recurring back problem is the suspected reason for the latest development.
"He's probably not going to play (Sunday)," Leafs' coach Pat Quinn said.
Quinn was doing some creative line juggling with his forwards.
He kept Ron Francis between Alex Mogilny and Gary Roberts and he had Wade Belak skating in Nieuwendyk's place alongside Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky. Sundin was with Tie Domi and Darcy Tucker, Robert Reichel skated between Chad Kilger and Nathan Perrot, and Matt Stajan was between Tom Fitzgerald and Clarke Wilm. That's five lines, and Quinn will use four.
"I'm not sure we'll go with those or not," he said of the combinations.
Belak is excited he might get a chance to skate in his first playoff game this spring. He's six foot five and the Leafs would have a physically imposing line should he be used with six foot four Ponikarovsky and six foot six Antropov, and the Leafs need to use big men opposite Keith Primeau and John LeClair.
"My physical presence could be used in a series like this," said Belak.
Mikael Renberg remains day to day with a hamstring injury.
Sundin predicts this will go the distance.
"It's two teams that are not going to give up a lot of chances against," he said. "I'm sure it's going to be a long series."
Toronto's lack of concerted offence was glaring in Game 1.
"We've got to do some things better in Game 2 than we did in Game 1," said Tucker. "Obviously, we didn't get as much traffic (in front of goalie Robert Esche) as we'd have liked. "Hopefully we can be better at that. You only score one goal and it's pretty tough to win hockey games."
There is a big difference in strategies used by the Senators and the Flyers, said defenceman Brian Leetch.
"They're similar in the neutral zone where they try to create turnovers but, as opposed to Ottawa coming out you with rush chances, (the Flyers) go to the corners and work out of the corners to the net.
"There's definitely a lot of short plays right around the net."
The Flyers will continue to jam things up around goaltender Ed Belfour, and it's a style with which the Leafs have difficulty coping.
The best solution is to maintain possession of the puck longer in the Flyers' zone, which is what Tucker was talking about. That's where Sundin would be invaluable.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/artic...24_014500_3460 |
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