Burke's soon-to-be Leafs play solid in shootout loss to Senators

OTTAWA - Brian Burke, who is set to become the next president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving with his family in Boston on Thursday night.

But there is a good chance the 53-year-old was watching the Leafs game. If so, he had to be somewhat impressed by the team's effort.

In what was likely an audition for their new boss, Toronto lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. It was the Leafs' fifth straight defeat.

Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson scored for Ottawa in the shootout, while Nikolai Kulemin and Lee Stempniak were stopped by Alex Auld.

But the reason the game even went to a shootout was because of Vesa Toskala, who stopped 34-of-35 shots.

"That was by far Vesa's best game," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson, whose club is now 1-4 in the shootout this season. "They've got some great offensive players and he was ready for the task."

The game saw a return to the inter-provincial rivalry that had been missing in past games between Toronto and Ottawa. The Leafs had been guilty of being pushed around in a 6-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday, but they showed more grit against the Senators.

Luke Schenn set the tone early with an open-ice bodycheck on Antoine Vermette. Dominic Moore, who had fought teammate Jeff Finger in practice on Wednesday, then dropped the gloves with Ottawa's Jason Smith. And six-foot-four, 217-pound Andre Deveaux seemed to invoke fear simply by stepping on the ice.

After being recalled from the minors Wednesday, Deveaux played in his first NHL game in place of Jason Blake, who is still suffering from headaches and neck pain after being blindsided by Atlanta's Colby Armstrong on Tuesday.

Wilson praised the 24-year-old Deveaux for filling a much-needed void for the Leafs.

"He was big, physical, talks to the other team and had some great scoring chances," Wilson said of Deveaux, who saw some power-play time. "That's something that we've been without; someone who no one wants to mess with."

Ottawa struck first on a goal by Mike Fisher at 3:54 in the first period. But 59 seconds later, Toronto's Kulemin answered back.

Fisher's goal was somewhat of an accident. The Senators forward, who had missed the last two games with strained ligaments in his knee, was trying to find Shean Donovan with a centering pass, but the puck inadvertently deflected in off defenceman Tomas Kaberle.

Toronto's goal, however, was the result of some solid forechecking from the Leafs. Mikhail Grabovski knocked Senators defenceman Chris Phillips off the puck and slid a gift-wrapped pass to Kulemin.

Despite combining for 19 shots, neither team scored in the second period.

Goaltending was part of the reason. The Leafs had entered the game ranked last in the NHL with 78 goals against, but Toskala, who was given the night off versus the Thrashers, seemed rested and confident in his crease.

"He was awesome for us all night," Schenn said of Toskala.

The 31-year-old netminder was a main reason why Toronto had a chance at victory and why Ottawa's Chris Kelly went home empty-handed. Toskala robbed Kelly on a breakaway in the first and then got his blocker on what seemed to be a sure-goal in the third.

Auld finished with 25 saves.