Raking Leafs and Burning Them, NYR 6, Toronto 1

Poor, poor Toronto.

Of the two coaches representing last night, Toronto Maple Leaf Coach Paul Maurice may be looking for a new job after a slaughtering by our New York Rangers at the ACC in Toronto. NYR Coach Tom Renney should be breathing easy for now. A sold out 19,000+ for this highly televised and anticipated Original Six meeting, the Blueshirts completely dominated the game from start to finish and handed the Leafs another loss this season. In fact, last night's beating was the sixth time the Maple Leafs have allowed five goals or more at home this season. "Hate" or "shame" could be fitting words if you are a Leafs fan this month.

Jaromir Jagr had a goal and three assists while Petr Prucha scored two goals for the Rangers (19-15-4). Blair Betts, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka also scored and backup goaltender Stephen Valiquette won in his hometown for the second time this season. Toronto's Darcy Tucker scored the loan goal in the third period and prevented "Valley"'s first NHL shutout.

The New York Rangers could not have played a more focused and terrific game. They scored five power play goals out of ten opportunities (50%, woh!) and played their most confident and disciplined game seen this season thus far. Everyone raised the bar last night: Jagr, Shanahan, Gomez, Drury, Betts, Valiquette & ......Tom Renney? Effective line changes, Captain Jagr diverting the Leafs defense, and the team aggressively taking the puck to the net gave them the win. There were less defensive turnovers than usual and even Marek Malik looked to be playing a fairly decent game.

One noteworthy word of the night......Prucha!

On paper, the Toronto Maple Leafs has one of the strongest defensive lines in the League -- or for that matter, maybe just the most expensive defensive ones. Giving the Blueshirts ten power plays was just irresponsible and they demonstrated some of the worst penalty killing ever seen. They literally allowed the Rangers to continuously take shots until we scored on them. The Dark Ranger hasn't seen such sub-par play since the Rangers lost to Atlanta or Phoenix!!?

The 'audience anticipated' Sean Avery/Darcy Tucker event never occurred, but an even fight between Colton Orr & Wade Belak kept the fight-hungry fans wanting more. Unless you were a Rangers fan in Toronto, everyone in the Air Canada Centre had to have been silenced & embarrassed by Andrew Raycroft's (pretending goalkeeper for the Leafs) performance. He was just plain awful. Dump him Toronto.

It was a solid game of hockey and I am thrilled by it. More telling will be how the Rangers can turn the Carolina beating and this 'confidence boosting' Toronto slaughter into another solid game against the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow. A 'win' tomorrow could be the long awaited turnaround we've all been hoping for.

Let's go Rangers and well done. We are proud to be Blue.

tdr

Tucker Him Out, Sean!

Best of luck to you, Blueshirt Sean Avery, as our well-loved pest takes to the ice this evening at the ACC in Toronto to revive one of the more interesting player-to-player rivalries in the NHL this season. Darcy Tucker of the Maple Leafs will again attempt to maintain his 'bad boy of the NHL' title this evening as the "hating hockey-loving Canadians" Sean Avery rolls into town. Oh, and by the way, the Toronto Maple Leafs are hosting The New York Rangers tonight as well.

Below is a post by Tim Bontemps of the NY Post:
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December 29, 2007 -- Ranger Sean Avery returns to Toronto tonight as Public Enemy No. 1 - for his Nov. 10 pregame fight with Darcy Tucker the last time the Rangers visited the Leafs, but also for his reputation as a world-class instigator. But while Avery's reputation as a pest precedes him league-wide, Ranger captain Jaromir Jagr takes a different view.

"The way he acts, the way he is, the way he plays the game, the way he likes to talk to people, that's what makes him, and he kind of likes that," Jagr said after practice yesterday.
"But I think hurting him the other way is people kind of forgetting how good a hockey player he is."

Jagr admitted he shared the same general opinion before Avery arrived from the Kings last season. But it only took watching Avery in one practice for Jagr to realize he wasn't a typical instigator. That's the thing . . . when people play that way, most of the time there's no other way to play for them," he said. "Most of the guys, I would say 99 percent [of] people [who] play his way, they're not able to play another way. If you don't find out how good he is, you put him on the fourth line.

While the Avery story is the headline heading into tonight, Ranger coach Tom Renney doesn't expect any problems or distractions because of it. "No, it's been dealt with," Renney said. "Sean knows the value of two points, and our team is starting to play well on a more consistent basis, and I don't think he's got an agenda otherwise.
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As lifelong Rangers fans, we are behind you Sean Avery! Kick some Toronto ass tonight and show them what a true world-class hockey player is all about.

tdr

Tucker vs Avery - Part IV, Let the People Decide

The real reason Darcy Tucker hates Sean Avery.....go here.

tdr

As the blog has been invaded by another country, I offer a beautifully written counter-point by a Canadian hockey writer that poses the statement, "The NHL's Version of the New York Yankees" which outlines the Toronto Leafs Organization and team as an overly bloated, highly ambitious losing franchise.

IF YOU ARE A TORONTO MAPLES LEAFS FAN.....PRESS HERE!!!!

Now in truth, these are not The Dark Ranger's words -- so such Toronto family members and (sorry tml) Leafs fans (Fabio), the Mirvishes should not take offense. So with that, I leave it to the upcoming season to embarrass our Leaf cohorts and point out every game, every mistep and every goal Mr. Darcy scores on his own team.

With love & "Let's Go Rangers!",

The Dark Ranger