Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson, right, looks at the puck as Atlanta Thrashers forward Anthony Stewart,left, misses a wide open net during first period NHL hockey action in Toronto on Monday, December 20, 2010.NATHAN DENETTE
Just in time for Christmas, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave their opponents an early gift.
And their fans appear ready to offer up a lump of coal in return.
In a game where the score hardly told the whole story, the Leafs were at one point soundly booed at the Air Canada Centre on Monday in a 6-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers, something that seemed to spark a comeback that fell short.
Making the loss more disheartening for the Leafs was the fact they out shot Atlanta 40-23 but were let down by goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and a few costly miscues in their own end.
Atlanta opened the scoring with two goals in the game's first three minutes to take a 2-0 lead, but centre John Mitchell put Toronto on the board on the power play late in the second period with his first of the season.
The Thrashers quickly restored the two-goal lead a few minutes later then chased Gustavsson from the goal altogether with two ugly goals to start the third.
With Toronto down 5-1 with 15 minutes left in the game, the fans initiated a "Fire Wilson" chant aimed at Leafs coach Ron Wilson.
Toronto then mounted a rally in the second half of the final frame, peppering netminder Ondrej Pavelec with at least a dozen shots, but goals from Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin weren't enough.
One fan even tossed waffles on the ice - the second time that's happened this season - and was ejected from the rink.
Pavelectric
Talk about a roller coaster season for Thrashers netminder Ondrej Pavelec, who fainted two minutes into the first game of the season, missed nearly a month and has been one of the NHL's more dominant goaltenders ever since.
Pavelec was solid against the punchless Leafs, making 37 saves - including 23 in the first two periods - to improve his record to 12-6-3. He is now among the league leaders with a 1.83 goals-against average and .943 save percentage.
Pavelec's strong play this season has helped mask some of Atlanta's defensive deficiencies, as the Thrashers have allowed more shots per game than most teams this season - a trend clearly evident against the Leafs.
Byfuglien's rise
The Leafs got a first-hand look at the league's highest scoring defence pairing in the Thrashers' 265-pound Dustin Byfuglien and 180-pound Tobias Enstrom.
Byfuglien, who came over in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks, had two assists and now leads all blueliners with 35 points. Enstrom had two goals and two assists and is fourth with 27 points.
The pair have even been receiving unexpected early Norris Trophy buzz in a field that remains wide open more than 30 games in.
Thrashers GM Rick Dudley credits coach Craig Ramsay with helping Byfuglien refine his game.
"Dustin's quickly becoming a very, very good defensive player," Dudley said. "If he puts all that together, there's really no stopping him."
Kaberle hits 500
Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle broke the 500-point barrier in the game, picking up the milestone point with an assist on Mitchell's goal.
Kaberle, who has 18 points in 33 games this season, is only the 11th player in franchise history to record 500 points as a Leaf. He's the second defenceman to do so behind Borje Salming (768).
Kaberle ranks 54th in career points by a blueliner and at 32 likely has another four or five productive seasons.
In his 12th season in Toronto, Kaberle's future with the team remains unclear. He's a pending unrestricted free agent and has been the subject of trade rumours throughout GM Brian Burke's tenure.