Injuries strike like lightning

By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
The Maple Leafs must have known they were tempting fate last Friday morning.

The weekly National Hockey League injury report was released and Toronto was the only one of 28 teams not to list any players sidelined by serious injury. But within 72 hours, the blank page was filled with:

- Centre Nik Antropov, who could be lost for another two weeks as he aggravated an arm injury Saturday in a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers. More will be known after an x-ray today.

- Defenceman Alexander Karpovtsev, who reinjured a shoulder in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon. He's gone at least until this coming Saturday.

- Defenceman Bryan Berard, who aggravated a nagging groin injury last Tuesday in Pittsburgh. There is a small chance he could come back tonight against the Washington Capitals. The Leafs were awaiting evaluation of their defencemen at St. John's -- the AHL farm team lost 2-0 to the Quebec Citadels yesterday -- before deciding whether anyone merited being called up.

- Defenceman Nathan Dempsey, who was being examined again yesterday after a suspected concussion knocked him out of the game Saturday against Edmonton.

Dempsey was on emergency summons from St. John's to replace Karpovtsev and Berard. He lasted just two minutes 15 seconds before taking a Jason Smith elbow. Yet Dempsey assisted on Steve Thomas' goal on the play, recording his first NHL point since a stint with Toronto in 1996-97.

"We were laughing with him in the dressing room, because he didn't see the goal and he can't remember anything about it," Leafs captain Mats Sundin said yesterday.

Sundin says the Leafs will not use this latest string of injuries as a crutch.

"We've shown that it doesn't really affect us," he said, no doubt referring to the club's 6-2-1 record while he was out with a fractured right ankle.

The Leafs have Alyn McCauley ready to replace Antropov at centre and they're carrying an extra winger in Todd Warriner.

"I haven't sorted everything out yet with the roster," Leafs general manager/coach Pat Quinn said yesterday, a day off from practice.

The five remaining defencemen did a good job Saturday after Dempsey's departure. Goaltender Curtis Joseph was particularly impressed that Tomas Kaberle saved energy by not getting involved in too many offensive forays.

Kaberle and Dmitry Yushkevich played about 281/2 minutes each against the Oilers, while Danny Markov was plus-two, with four hits and two blocked shots.

"It was also our second game in two nights," defenceman Cory Cross said. "It takes some adjustments (when dropping to five defencemen from six so early in a game), but we fill in as best we can."

If Quinn's first line has another four-goal, eight-point outing as it did against Edmonton then he need not lose any sleep. Sundin is regaining his offensive touch, Jonas Hoglund is now eight shy of his first 20-goal NHL season, and, pending a review today of a goal last Friday that initially was awarded Sundin, Thomas could end up with two in as many games after a month-long drought.

"A couple of weeks ago, we were just getting a couple of chances a game," Sundin said.

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