New Leaf on Cloud 9

By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun Nikolai Antropov ditched his training camp No. 66 before last night's game, thinking Mario Lemieux's famous digit was "too heavy" for a Kazakh kid's NHL debut.
Then he went out and did his new No. 9 proud, with a second-period assist that helped the Maple Leafs blow off the Mats Sundin blues with a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
The Leafs received goals from first-liners Yanic Perreault and Jonas Hoglund as well as defenceman Tomas Kaberle in their vital first triumph minus their hobbled captain, Sundin.
"We'll think about this game for a lot of reasons," general manager/coach Pat Quinn said. "Yes, we're missing our best player, but it doesn't deter the other 20 from getting better. One guy never wins a Cup, unless it's a goaltender."
The win came with a price, with centre Igor Korolev x-rayed for a possible broken cheekbone. He will be re-evaluated today. Quinn also alluded to a Garry Valk injury, which occurred during the frequent sword play that went on in the game, but team medical staff saw fit to impose a media blackout on Valk's condition.

POISE
Quinn's face lit up whenever he talked of Antropov's poise, which the 19-year-old had exhibited through the pre-season.
"He didn't have a case of the jitters," Quinn said. "He ended up with a lot of different (wingers) tonight. How else do you learn and grow?"
The line juggling was forced in part by a string of three Toronto minors in the second period and then the Korolev injury, when a teammate hit him in the mouth with a clearing pass.
"In his first NHL game, I wasn't worried about (Antropov) falling asleep on the bench," Quinn said.
Antropov, who started between Todd Warriner and Mike Johnson on the third line, came back from the layoff to make a crisp pass across the slot on Kaberle's goal, which made it 2-1 for Toronto.
"I was nervous (before the game)," Antropov said. "I feel good now."
Quinn said he was unaware Antropov was going to choose a number so important in NHL lore and once worn by the Leafs greats such as Charlie Conacher, Dick Duff, Busher Jackson and Ted Kennedy.
"He probably doesn't think it means anything to us," Quinn said with a laugh.
If Antropov was just glad to get a point in his first game, Perreault was ecstatic to make a contribution in his first night as Sundin's understudy. He tipped Danny Markov's power-play shot in for the winner with 5:37 to play.
But after Warriner didn't work out there on Monday, Perreault must maintain his consistency as much as his excellent faceoff percentage.
"We've got two more big games coming up," Perreault said of weekend road matches in Chicago tomorrow and St. Louis on Saturday.
Hoglund now has five goals in six games after just eight all of last year in Montreal and a career-best 19 in Calgary. Steve Thomas spotted him darting through the Florida line and the latter banked it off an unlucky Sean Burke at 13:37 of the first period to tie the game 1-1.
The Leafs had begun to sag midway through the second period, constantly on penalty killing alert and stuck at one shot after getting 11 in the first. Callup Ivan Novoseltsev, whose name was still being stitched on his sweater just before warmup, had two power-play goals.
Alexander Karpovtsev was assessed a rare penalty for shooting a broken shaft at an opposing player under the category of interference. Florida had just 18 shots, but Curtis Joseph was sharp in tight for the Leafs .
Steve Sullivan found himself out of the Toronto lineup again, while Florida dressed Novoseltsev and Filip Kuba to replace Pavel Bure (groin) and Scott Mellanby (groin). Both Panthers will be back on Saturday. The Panthers became the first NHL team to go 0-3 at he ACC.
Alyn McCauley had a couple of good chances after suffering a bruised shoulder in his first shift of Saturday's game in Ottawa.

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