Even a few of the many, many Maple Leafs fans in attendance had to be a wee bit embarrassed by the way their team broke a tie early in the second period Saturday night at Canadian Tire Centre.

Why there was no penalty call on Nazem Kadri for hauling down Zack Smith just inside the Toronto blue line -- springing the 2-on-1 break that put the visitors up 2-1 on the scoreboard -- is anyone's guess.

But look, referees are not really zebras, they are human, they make mistakes. The bothersome part isn't so much them ignoring or missing the Kadri Kan Opener (somewhere Bryan McCabe had to be smiling) but that Brian Pochmara couldn't just turn away when Smith ripped into him for the error. Instead, he gave Smith an unsportsmanlike minor and a misconduct.

Brian buddy, you gotta grow some skin when you mess up. At the very least, you've got to nail Phil Kessel for an unsportsmanlike, too, when he skates over and laugh's at Smith in the penalty box.

STARTS AND STOPS

Easily the best game of the season for atmosphere, this one was. The Senators had more jump at home than they've had in a long while, too. Still can't get over how there were so many more people wearing Leafs jerseys in the crowd than Senators supporters "¦ Oh wait, another controversial Leafs goal. When it became 3-1 you had to wonder how long before Paul MacLean is going to say the hell with the fine and speak his mind at a post-game presser? Maybe it would be a wake up call his team needs, in which case we're certain Eugene would cover the cost, right? "¦ The Senators finally figured out how to avoid giving up an odd man rush in the first minute when Erik Karlsson tripped Kadri. Unfortunately for the red team, James van Riemsdyk capitalized on the man advantage. Personally, I thought Jared Cowen could have gotten away with putting van Riemsdyk on his back a second before -- or at least made him feed him some crossbar the way Dion Phaneuf did Bobby Ryan later in the period "¦ It appeared Cowen learned his lesson by the way he sent Kadri flying out of a goal mouth scramble later in the first.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM"¦

How good did Clarke "Griz" MacArthur feel scoring against his old team, specifically Randy Carlyle's team? Earlier in the day, MacArthur said he heard no feedback from anybody for going off in the media on Carlyle before the first Senators-Leafs of the season. So, in a smooth topic change, we asked him how the Griswolds were going to spend their Christmas Vacation. "Lots of Christmas lights"¦what happens in that movie, they blackout the whole house, don't they?" said MacArthur, who was nicknamed after Clark Griswold by past teammates only because he shares the same first name as Chevy Chase's character in the movie. "All the Grizwolds are coming in." "¦ We interrupt this fine piece of journalism to tell you that, along with Saturday being the 29th birthday of Milan Michalek, it also would have been the 90th birthday of Ted Knight, better known as Ted Baxter in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which we all loved in the '70s. Thanks to the diligent research of one Gordie Wilson, we can also inform you that Knight was born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka. That, of course, prompted Cheapseats to send out an "any relation?" text message. "Have to ask my mom," replied Minnesota Wild centre Zenon Konopka. Stay tuned "¦ Moved up from the fourth line to play with Kyle Turris and Ryan, Michalek looked like he had more jump than at any other time this season "¦ Anybody wanting a penalty shot to be called on Mark Fraser for hooking Ryan during a breakaway in the first didn't know that the Senators power play, while not great, still entered the game with a 19% efficiency rating. The Senators are batting zero in shootouts "¦ There was 1.3 seconds left in the first and a faceoff in the Leafs zone. I've never understood why the attacking team's coach doesn't pull his goalie in that situation "¦ Too bad Chris Neil lost his balance in the second period bout with Frazer McLaren, to whom he was giving up about five inches and 20 pounds. Might have been a good one.

BETWEEN PERIODS

The old Alfredsson estate is turning into Hotel Lehner. First Derek Grant lived with the owner when he was up from the farm, now Mike Hoffman does. "I'm a Bingo guy. We've got to live together," said Robin "The", before getting serious. "I've lived in hotel for a year. It gets old very quickly. And Hof has a dog too, a French bulldog, Murphy. I lived at Brookstreet once with one of my dogs. It's not good."

Lehner has fenced in the backyard of the big Kanata house he purchased from Daniel Alfredsson because he now has four dogs -- three English bulldogs and a Cane Corso. He stalled when asked their names because, we found out later, one is still up for debate. "The first one is Nancy. The second one is Jax. Third one is Nero, and we named the last dog one name, but my girlfriend "¦ we're still having discussions about it. I named him Lebron. She wants to call him Piney." (Jax, Piney and Nero are characters in Lehner's go-to show, Sons of Anarchy). When it was suggested he settle quick on a name for Lebron/Piney because the dog is going to get confused, he replied: "He is a little confused though. Like me." Lehner does love his dogs. "It's nice," he said. "Go home, lay on the ground and you just get attacked. It's awesome." It also sounds like the abuse Senators goalies are getting in games these days, but that's another story.

BITS, BYTES AND BUTT ENDS

Great, lengthy video clip of Mark Borowiecki during a stop in play with 5:55 to go in the opening period, but was somebody just trying to make Senators fans angry with the reminder that one of the organization's better defencemen is back in the minors? "¦ Just to be clear, Cory Conacher was not in the press box as an injured player. Asked, before he knew he was going to sit this one out, about the "maintenance day" he took while his teammates practiced Friday, Conacher first joked "it's like an oil change." Then he said: "I just picked up a couple of bumps and bruises the last couple of games.That Florida trip sometimes kills you. Just (needed) a rest, pretty much." Are you 100% now? "Oh yeah," said Conacher. "You're always 100 % for a game against the Leafs." "¦ The Senators entered the night with a 6-3-2 record in games played by Conacher's replacement, Matt Kassian "¦ Who else thought MacLean was going to put Kassian on the ice right after the Neil-McLaren bout?

don.brennan@sunmedia.ca