May 30: This Day in Laff History

[Leafhatred]

On this day in 1992, ex-leaf great goaltender Tom Barrasso shutout the Chicago Blackhawks 1-0 to put his team within one game of a Stanley Cup victory. He completed the task two nights later.

Oh yeah, as you can probably guess, Tom was not a leaf at the time. Barrasso was winning championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and 1992 while the leafs were struggling like usual.

Barrasso was a rookie-of the year- Calder trophy winner, an All-Star, a two-time Cup winner, a Jennings trophy winner, etc. - all with other teams. By the time the leafs signed him he was ready to be put out to pasture. He only played 4 games as a Leaf in 2001-02

Does this story and scenario sound familiar to you?

[grim]

This is my most vivid Barrasso/Leaf memory. Ouch.


Monday, April 24, 2000
Leafs 4, SENATORS 2
Thomas continues to stump Ottawa
# Summary

By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports

OTTAWA -- Steve Thomas.

Forget Tom Barrasso's four-letter faux pas on national television.

When Ottawa Senators fans say they have two words for you, well, you know what they will be.

For the second-straight night, Thomas, the Toronto Maple Leafs veteran winger, took a team that was as good as dead and just like that, almost out of nowhere, dragged them kicking back to life.

At the same time, he killed the Senators. Thomas' first goal Monday night, his sixth of the series, spurred the Leafs to a come-from-behind 4-2 win at the Corel Centre and eliminated the Senators four games to two in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal.

"He was probably the key to the series," said Senators defenceman Jason York. "He turned it round for them. He stole (Game 5) for them in Toronto Saturday night and he got the goal again tonight. He's an opportunist. You've got to give him credit."

The Leafs will now try to do the same thing to the New Jersey Devils in one of the Eastern semifinals. Game 1 is Thursday and Game 2 Saturday at the Air Canada Centre.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers meet in the other semifinal which gets underway Thursday in Philly.

Thomas will get a chance to do to the Devils, where he played for three seasons before joining the Leafs, what he did to the Senators.

Just 12 seconds after the Senators had taken a 2-0 lead, Thomas jumped on a turnover by Ottawa defenceman Sami Salo, who was on the ice for all four Leafs goals in the second period, and for the second straight game revived a Toronto team that was being outplayed and looked dead in the water.

Late in Game 5, with the Leafs trailing 1-0, Thomas had scored to tie the game and then delivered the winner in overtime.

Three minutes after his goal Monday night, there was Thomas again, bursting down the right wing and terrorizing another Ottawa defenceman with his 36-year-old legs. His shot off the leg of Igor Kravchuk deflected to Leafs captain Mats Sundin and he buried the puck in the open side to the right of Barrasso.

"When (Thomas) scored, the bench just seemed to erupt," said Toronto winger Darcy Tucker.

Though the game was only tied at that point, the feeling in the building was the outcome had been decided. The Senators could play their defensive style all they wanted, but it was never going to be a match for the Leafs' quick-strike abilities personified in Thomas.

"I like it when I'm counted on," said Thomas. "I like to be accountable to myself and I want to be accountable to all the guys in the room. There are going to be nights when you're not the guy. I get a real blast out of being the guy."

In the broadest of terms, this series was structure against creativity.

Structure didn't stand a chance.

The free-wheeling Leafs made a shambles of the Senators defensive system, forcing the Senators into a rare panic and jumping on the ensuing mistakes.

For the second-straight game, the Senators scored first but this time got the second goal they couldn't find in Game 5. But not even that was enough to stop the unflagging Leafs forwards.

Ottawa's Joe Juneau gave the Senators a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. In an eerie replay of their demise in Game 5 48 hours earlier, the Senators squandered a 5-on-3 man advantage when Toronto forwards Gary Valk - as he had in Game 5 - was sent off for highsticking.

The Senators again failed to score.

But while the Senators failure to score in that situation in Game 5 gave the Leafs a boost, this time the Senators bounced back to make it 2-0 when defenceman Igor Kravchuk rifled a shot off the post at 3:59 of the second period.

That's when Thomas, the Senator killer, put his team back in the game. Salo tried to pass the puck on his backhand up the middle of the ice. It didn't look like he got all of it and the puck went right onto Thomas' stick in the right wing faceoff circle. He took a step and then rifled it by Barrasso on the stick side.

"That was a real bad play by me," said Salo, his face streaked with tears after the game. "He scored and it turned the game the other way around."

After Sundin's goal, it seemed just a matter of time before the whiff of panic which had begun to swirl about the Senators would grow to engulf them.

The Senators couldn't clear the front of the net after killing a slashing penalty to Barrasso halfway through the period and Sergei Berezin jumped on a loose puck and slipped it under Barrasso's left arm to make it 3-2 at 10:40.

More shoddy play in their own zone, which saw Salo clear the puck blindly up the board and onto the stick of Leafs defenceman Cory Cross resulted in Wendel Clark's first goal of the playoffs a 18:47.

This might be all you need to know about this series: Clark, who didn't even dress for the first four games, wound up outscoring the Senators line of Radek Bonk, Magnus Arvedson and Marian Hossa, Ottawa's top offensive unit during the regular season.

The trio are still looking for the first playoff goals of their careers.

They're going to have to wait a while now.
Summary

-----------------------------
Toronto 0 4 0--4
Ottawa 1 1 0--2
-----------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Ottawa, Juneau 2 (Mceachern), 3:45.
Penalties: Mceachern, Ott (slashing), 11:39; Clark, Tor (high sticking),
19:50.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 2, Ottawa, Kravchuk 1 (V Prospal, Salo), 3:59.
3, Toronto, Thomas 6 (unassisted), 4:11. 4, Toronto, Sundin 3 (Thomas,
Hoglund), 7:16. 5, Toronto, S Berezin 3 (Markov, Khristich), 10:40. 6,
Toronto, Clark 1 (Cross), 18:47. Penalties: Valk, Tor (high sticking),
0:25; Barrasso, Ott served by Hossa (slashing), 8:24; Valk, Tor (Obstr
holding), 12:47; Ledyard, Ott (interference), 20:00.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: None. Penalties: Zamuner, Ott (Intent to
injure), 8:16; Korolev, Tor (slashing), 9:45.

Shots on goal:
---------------------------------
Toronto 4 13 7--24
Ottawa 8 17 13--38
---------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: Tor - 0 of 4, Ott - 0 of 4. Goalies: Toronto,
Joseph (38 shots, 36 saves; record: 4-2-0). Ottawa, Barrasso (24, 20;
record: 2-4-0). A:18,500. Referees: Jackson, Koharski. Linesmen:
Broseker, Nowak.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

Toronto Ottawa
G A +/- Shots G A +/- Shots
Adams 0 0 even 0 Alfredsson 0 0 +1 0
Clark 1 0 +1 4 Arvedson 0 0 -2 1
Cross 0 1 +1 0 Bonk 0 0 -2 1
Di Yushkevich 0 0 +1 2 Dackell 0 0 even 1
Diduck 0 0 even 1 Forbes 0 0 -1 2
Domi 0 0 -1 0 Hossa 0 0 -3 1
Hoglund 0 1 +2 1 Juneau 1 0 even 5
Kaberle 0 0 even 0 Kravchuk 1 0 -2 6
Karpovtsev 0 0 +1 0 Ledyard 0 0 even 1
Khristich 0 1 +1 0 Mceachern 0 1 +1 8
Korolev 0 0 -1 1 Phillips 0 0 +1 1
Mair 0 0 -1 0 Roy 0 0 -1 1
Markov 0 1 +1 1 S Van Allen 0 0 -1 0
S Berezin 1 0 even 5 Salo 0 1 -3 8
Sundin 1 0 +2 3 Traverse 0 0 -1 0
Thomas 1 1 +2 3 V Prospal 0 1 +1 0
Tucker 0 0 +1 2 York 0 0 +1 1
Valk 0 0 even 1 Zamuner 0 0 +1 1
Antropov Unknown Redden Foot Injury
K King Healthy Dineen Shoulder
Mccauley Healthy Miller Healthy
G Andrusak Healthy Gruden Healthy
Perreault Leg Injury Schastlivy Healthy
Mcallister Foot Injury Fisher Knee Injury
B Berard Eye Injury



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