Anyway, what I watched was a fiercely disputed game that showcased Toronto’s Vesa Toskala and New York’s Steve Valiquette.

There were plenty of chances at either end of the rink, including several posts by each team. The score could have been much more inflated had the two netminders not been razor-sharp.

Anyway, here’s some things I noticed, from both teams:

• Scott Gomez is ridiculously fast! Unless the Leafs are particularly slow, which they didn’t appear to be save for a few individuals, Gomez is simply lightning quick. I’m surprised he doesn’t score more goals, since he seems to be able to win individual footraces against the likes of Tomas Kaberle… Gomez should definitely be taught to shoot rather than pass…
• Vesa Toskala might blow the Leafs’ chances at landing Tavares or Hedman. Really! He’ll end up winning some of those tight games, and with a bit of improvement on his shootout play, the Leafs will wind up in about 6th from the bottom. Maybe they will go after Brayden Schenn???
• Toronto has no star power up front. This team was full of a bunch of over-hyped youngsters like Nikolai Kulemin and Michail Grabovski, and then you had the third and fourth line type players who filled out the roster. It’s very bad when your marquee forwards are Nik Antropov and uhm…
• Steve Valiquette is capable of starting more games than the Rangers give him. His sheer size is intimidating to shooters, and he covers a lot of the net. I think this is key, to keep Henrik Lundqvist fresh and healthy. It’s nice to see that Valiquette can win a tight game. The Leafs were very intent on winning last night, but Valiquette kept his composure, and was rarely forced to make any “lucky” saves.
• Toronto has a surprisingly good pickup in Johan Frogren. He didn’t figure much on the stats sheet, but he played a very solid defensive game, especially against some of the Rangers’ quicker guys, like Nikolai Zherdev. Frogren seemed to find good lines of attack in his coverage. I’m not sure he can be considered as good of a pickup as that Fabian Brunnstrom guy in Dallas, but it’s a nice move for a rebuilding team…

Anyway, as you can no doubt tell, I’m trying to view things as objectively as possible. The Rangers are having a great season, but last night was a far closer game than I expected. Clearly we still have plenty of room for improvement, mainly in terms of finishing scoring chances. Tonight’s game against Detroit should show if Lundqvist’s presence in goal gives the team more confidence in initiating rushes. I’m predicting the Rangers win 4-2.

Key Players: Lundqvist, Naslund, Rozsival