Let’s get ready to rumble.
Fight fans and Rangers fans alike will be curious to see what unfolds tonight when the Blueshirts, winners of six straight, travel to Toronto to grapple with the pugilistic Maple Leafs (7:00, MSG, WNYM 970 AM). Tempers started to flare on Monday night, when the Leafs made something of a habit of running over goalie Henrik Lundqvist in a 7-2 Rangers rout at the Garden.
Head coach John Tortorella said earlier this week that he was worried about Lundqvist’s security in the cage.
“I don’t believe we should go as far in protecting goaltenders as the NFL does in protecting quarterbacks, but if it’s blatant, the way it was Monday with [Leafs center] Jamal Mayers, that needs to be called,” Tortorella said.
The Rangers’ go-to brawler, free agent pickup Donald Brashear, missed Wednesday’s night 4-2 win over the Kings with an unspecified upper-body injury, but skated in yesterday’s practice and should play. If he’s in the lineup, Brashear can be expected to tangle with former Rangers enforcer Colton Orr — the feuding duo wasted little time before their first-period throwdown Monday night.
There was no clear winner in that round of fisticuffs, but the Rangers’ high-powered offense against the Leafs’ faltering defense represents one of the league’s bigger mismatches.
The Rangers averaged four goals per game during their 6-1-0 start, tied with the Stars and Thrashers for best in the NHL at the start of play yesterday. The winless Maple Leafs (0-5-1), whose immediate descent to the Eastern Conference cellar gives new meaning to “fall” foliage, were worst in the league by comfortable margins with 4.67 goals-against per game and an .841 save percentage.
Following the struggles of Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson, former Islanders goalie Joey MacDonald was the latest to take a crack between the pipes for Toronto — he allowed four goals on 28 shots in Tuesday night’s 4-1 drubbing by the Avalanche.
Lundqvist faced double-digit shots in every period from the Kings and turned away 34 of 36. Now the Leafs will try to take their shots.