The Toronto Maple Leafs came into Madison Square Garden Friday night and ruined the Blueshirts home opener with a 4-3 overtime victory. We saw the Leafs outplay the Rangers for the majority of the game on both ends of the ice and bombard Henrik Ludqvist with 38 shots on goal. Michal Rozsival, who was met with boos unfairly by the crowd during the introductions, scored the games first goal at 7:58 in the 1st period on a wrist shot from the right point. Rozy also led all Rangers in over 28 minutes of ice time. Toronto scored three unanswered goals in the 2nd period to take a 3-1 lead. What hurts a lot more is losing sniper Marian Gaborik and Chris Druty in the 2nd period to injuries. Gaborik suffered a separated left shoulder on a boarding penalty by Toronto’s Colby Armstrong and Drury fractured the same index finger he just recovered from. Sean Avery challenged Armstrong and he skated away from Avery. Brian Boyle scored at 2:10 in the 3rd period on a much needed goal to bring the score to 3-2 and the Rangers played a much better game from that point on. Former Ranger Colton Orr, who I used to love, was once again a dope in front of his old fans. Orr took a bad roughing penalty just seconds after Boyle’s second goal. At 3:49 in the 3rd period the Rangers’ Ruslan Fedotenko and Avery were called for penalties. The Blueshirts did an outstanding job of killing off the two man 5-on-3 advantage. Boyle came though again by scoring the tying goal at 6:19. The game went into overtime and Toronto came out on top by Phil Kessel’s power play, his second goal of the game. Marc Staal was called for a joke of an interference penalty and that gave the Leafs the 4-on-3 advantage. On the trip home we were talking about the injuries to Gaborik and Drury and that Alex Frolov will need to step up. The Rangers have a tough schedule the first month of the season and will need to play well at home to not lose ground in the early going.
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