Poetic Justice

The Hero of the night

 First , I'm still pretty pissed at that bogus call made by the refs in OT, there is no way Tyson Barrie deserved that penalty, no friggin way.

Now Karma is a bitch sometimes, and boy did it come back to bite the Senators in their collectives asses.  Mitch Marner scored the OT winner from a shot from the point during a payback penalty call, a legitimate one against Ottawa.

I call it poetic justice. Nuff said, no..okay I'll continue.

Now onto the game capsule, Jason Spezza was in the middle of the action back then on the other side with the Ottawa Senators.

The winger scored on a power play at 3:54 of overtime as Toronto defeated Ottawa 2-1 on night where Michael Hutchinson made 24 saves and Spezza turned back the clock with a virtuoso performance than included an end-to-end rush and a stunning equalizer.

 After the Leafs (28-17-7) killed off a penalty in the extra period where Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot rattle the post, Toronto got a man advantage of its own and Marner — known more for his vision and play-making ability — blasted his 14th on a one-timer off a feed from William Nylander.

“I don’t think anyone really thinks I’m going to shoot that,” Marner said. “Luckily it went in.”
Mark Borowiecki replied for the rebuilding Senators (18-24-10), who got 34 stops from Craig Anderson after losing 5-3 at home to Washington on Friday.
“We stayed with it,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We knew it was going to be a really hard game, and it was.”
Hutchinson, who got the call in place of No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen with Toronto playing its first of five games in eight nights, improved to 4-0-0 over his last four starts after going winless in his first seven outings this season.
“I’ve been positive all year,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence and our whole team has that swagger back.”

The 29-year-old from Barrie, Ont., used to settle down in front of the television to watch Toronto and Ottawa go to war back in the 2000s, and was excited to be part of the action for the first time.
“It was a little extra added atmosphere,” Hutchinson said. “It’s also cool having Spezza on our side of the Battle of Ontario now. I grew up watching him on the other side of it.
“To be a part of it was pretty cool.”

Hutchinson was impressed with Spezza’s performance, which was accentued by a bullet slapshot to tie the game in the second period.
“He was great,” Hutchinson said of the 36-year-old nicknamed “Vintage” by teammates. “He turned back the clock with some of those dangles, flying through the neutral zone and that shot.”
Spezza, meanwhile, tried to downplay his ties to the Toronto-Ottawa rivalry.
“It’s a huge honour for me to play here for the Leafs,” Spezza said. “This Battle of Ontario’s ingrained in me. I’ve been on the other side and used to like coming in here and trying to win games.
“But I’m really not trying to focus on all the nostalgia.”
Saturday’s other big storyline was the Leafs’ decision to scratch winger Kasperi Kapanen — the move wasn’t injury-related and he watched from the Scotiabank Arena press box — with Dmytro Timashov taking his place in the lineup.

Keefe left a lot open to interpretation at his post-game news conference.
“Internal accountability is really what it is,” he said. “You (media) will get a chance to talk to him when we get together again on Monday.” Odd, really odd.

Tied 1-1 through 40 minutes, Anderson robbed the red-hot Nylander, who entered with goals in five straight contests, 36 seconds into the third on a power play when he reached back with his glove to deny the winger.

The lightning-quick Anthony Duclair then had an opportunity at the other end that Hutchinson turned aside.
Anderson then stopped both Justin Holl and Auston Matthews on chances in close as Toronto started to come in waves before John Tavares hit the post and Alexander Kerfoot was stopped off the rush.
Zach Hyman then saw the puck bounce over his stick in the dying seconds of regulation with Anderson way out of position.

After the Leafs had a couple of good looks in front of Anderson early in the second, Borowiecki scored his seventh at 6:08 on a shot through traffic to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead.
Hutchinson was forced to make big saves on Chris Tierney, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Brady Tkachuk in quick succession before Spezza struck against his former team on the power play.
The Toronto native took a feed from rookie defenceman Rasmus Sandin and ripped a slapshot upstairs, shortside on Anderson for his eighth goal in 40 games — and first on this side of the Battle of Ontario — to match his total from each of the last two seasons with Dallas.

Spezza, who was selected second overall by Ottawa at the 2001 NHL draft and played parts of 11 seasons in the nation’s capital, suited up against the Senators in blue and white for the first time after former Toronto head coach Mike Babcock scratched him in the clubs’ first meeting on opening night.

And now we bring on the Florida Panthers, who had held the last playoff spot until Saturday's heroics by Marner, and a shut out defeat by the Montreal Canadiens.