Plans to let play answer Desjardins' insult
By ROB LONGLEY -- Toronto Sun
Adopting the sticks and stones approach, Nik Antropov has no plans tonight to take his 6-foot-5 frame and get tough with one of the most verbose of the Broad Street Bullies. 

"What do you want me to do, go and hit him over the head?" Antropov said when asked if he had a score to settle with Philadelphia Flyers captain Eric Desjardins. 

"We'll talk about (Desjardins) after the game. The most important thing is going out and getting ready for the playoffs." 

In the heat of the Eric Lindros trade rumours, Antropov was the central character reported to be headed to the Flyers. Before the deal collapsed, The veteran defenceman ridiculed the notion of his team even considering the raw 20-year-old in his second season with the Leafs. 

"Look what Toronto offered. Have you seen Antropov play?" was the most derogatory of Desjardins' quoted remarks. 

If Antropov has no designs on mucking it up when the Flyers and Leafs meet tonight at the Air Canada Centre, that doesn't mean some of his more feisty teammates may deliver a message to Desjardins. 

At the time, many of the Leafs certainly took umbrage to the Desjardins' remarks and the sour feeling they created were still coating their mouths yesterday. 

"Usually you don't mention about another team's players when it comes to a trade," Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph said following the team's morning practice yesterday. 

"Nik is a young guy and it's not good to say stuff like that. 

"It's like picking which team you want to play in the playoffs. There are some things you don't do." 

Leafs enforcer Tie Domi said the worst of Desjardins' comments was that Antropov's struggles were, in part, the result of a serious knee injury he suffered in the playoff last spring. 

"We're a pretty classy bunch and we're not going to start throwing stones at a guy who took a shot at a kid coming back from reconstructive knee surgery," Domi said. 

If Antropov was wounded by Desjardins' words, he wasn't showing it. 

"All I can do is go out and play my best," Antropov said. "They're a good team and we've lost to them twice this year. They are a pretty big team, and strong. But we can take care of ourselves."