Fans jeer as winger struggles to score

Lanky Kazakh says knee's OK after hit

PAUL HUNTER

They don't need to fix Nik Antropov's knee again. But his hands? They could use a little work.

The lanky Maple Leafs forward had a game to forget — one to which booing fans provided an exclamation point — in his team's 4-3 win over Montreal in pre-season play last night.

Twice, he flailed wildly at lovely one-timer opportunities in the third period and he flubbed another chance in close when he couldn't tuck a puck in the open side.

Then, in the final minute with the Montreal net empty for an extra attacker, Antropov missed a point-blank oportunity that deflected off a stick.

But that wasn't his ugliest moment. In the first minute of that third period, it appeared Antropov would have to worry more about rehab than the Habs.

He was at the wrong end of a horrific looking knee-on-knee hit from Montreal prospect Guillaume Latendresse, who was reaching for a pass. He tumbled like a flopping ragdoll then lay on the ice for a more than a minute. He gingerly made his way to the bench and then the dressing room.

Antropov probably wished he didn't return. After flubbing those golden chances, the fans had seen enough, their frustration likely exacerbated by the sight of the oft-injured Antropov laying on the ice like a soccer player only to return to take a regular shift.

When Antropov was announced as one of the shootout participants, the raspberries started.

When he fired lamely into goalie Carey Price's pads, the booing was ratcheted up a few decibels.

"That's their problem. If they choose to do that, I don't have any (control) over it," said Antropov who claims not to have noticed. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"When I'm on the ice I just concentrate on hockey so I didn't really pay attention to it."

Pat Quinn said the fan reaction was because they want him to do well.

"He's got to get better in that concentration area so that he can execute properly when the opportunities are there. Opportunites are hard enough to get in this game so when you do get them, you have to find a way to make them pay for you," said Quinn.

Antropov was also frustrated with himself. But he tried to joke about his blown chances.

"Just saving it for the season," he said.

Quinn was livid that the hit by Latendresse only earned the Hab a two-minute minor for kneeing.

"We're trying to change the hooking and holding yet we don't severely penalize something that's going to hurt other people? I don't get it," he said.

Latendresse said it was an accident.

"I'm not a player who would try to hurt somebody. I'm a clean player but sometimes mistakes happen. I didn't want to hurt him," he said.

Antropov, who has had reconstructive surgery on both knees and wears a brace on each of them, said he knew immediately that he wasn't injured.

He said he went to the dressing room because he "wanted to stretch."

"It was nothing in the knee," he said.

"The hit was just above the knee so it's fine."