When the New York Rangers visit the Air Canada Centre, it stirs some emotion, primarily due to the presence of Sean Avery, probably the NHL’s number one so called pest. He has been disciplined by the league for pushing the envelope too far, in terms of his attempts to get under the skin of opposing team’s and players, however when he keeps himself under control, he can be an asset. Going into Thursday’s game, he had 4 assists in 4 games, and the Rangers were 1-2-1, with 3 points.
The Maple Leafs were off to one of their best starts in years, at 4-0-1, for 9 points.
The almost mandatory clash of pugilists took place fairly early in the first period of this game, as Colton Orr and Derek Boogaard dropped their gloves and had an evenly fought match.
Toronto came out of the gate somewhat slower than they have in previous games, as they only had 4 shots on goal with 8:34 remaining in the period, in comparison to the Rangers 10 shots.
New York scored on a goal-mouth scramble at 16:11, as Ruslan Fedotenko got the goal, and at 17:12, Artem Anisimov shot the puck into the net, converting a pass, while being watched, but not closely enough, by Tomas Kaberle, to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
New York came close to putting the game out of reach in the second period, as they had a 3 on 1 break and hit the crossbar on a shot, and nearly scored on the resulting rebound, in the first 6 minutes of the second frame. At the end of the second period, the Leafs received a noticeable volume of boos from their fans. Through the first two periods, the Rangers were skating very well, and, were very effective in their penalty killing, as they limited the time and space that Toronto’s point men had, to get shots on net. It looked like New York was paying attention, to what they did poorly in their earlier game with the Maple Leafs last week.
Ryan Callahan had a breakaway and just missed early in the third period. The Leafs did eventually break through,as Colby Armstrong scored at 11:04 and just a few seconds later, Brandon Prust was penalized for hooking. Toronto had some good puck control, but the Rangers were good enough to kill the penalty, and hold on for the 2-1 win, and a badly needed one for New York, making up for the sloppy game they played at Madison Square Garden on October 15. In that match, the Leafs went ahead 3-1 in the second period, with 3 goals in the space of 5 minutes, before the Rangers woke up, and tied the game with two goals in the first 6 and a half minutes of the third period. Toronto won that game in overtime, on a power play goal by Phil Kessel.
New York was outshot in the first two periods of that contest, by a margin of 30-12.
In this game, the Maple Leafs gave up a pile of odd-man rushes and breaks to New York. The Leafs were fortunate not to be down by a much wider margin, based on the scoring opportunities they were surrendering to the Rangers.
It is also noticeable to professional scouts, that the Leafs are weak at the center position. Neither Tyler Bozak or Mikhail Grabovski have any goals so far. For the Leafs to reach a playoff position, and to succeed in the post-season, that is an area that will have to improve, but that is only likely to happen through a trade. Whether or not Brian Burke can find a trading partner to facilitate such a deal, is an entirely different story. The Maple Leafs have already given up their first round pick in next June’s draft to the Boston Bruins, as part of the Phil Kessel trade.