The New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs are playing on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden and the game comes after the NHL trade deadline and NY traded its captain in Ryan Callahan to the Tampa Bay Lightning and now they have Martin St. Louis on their roster and it came after the two sides could not come to a contract agreement on an extension.
The Rangers come into the game after a loss against the Boston Bruins and now that will be the final game for Callahan in a Rangers uniform and that was a tough loss and six goals were allowed in that game by NY. The team now plays at home against the Leafs and they next play on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes and now they will have a new captain after Callahan was traded away.
The team comes in third in the Metro division and they are playing against a solid Toronto team that is pushing towards the playoffs and they have 72 points on the season. The Rangers added a solid scorer in St. Louis and now he joins his former teammate in Brad Richards after the two won a Cup together with the Lightning and now he is with the Rangers and it came after St. Louis said that was the only team he would waive his no-trade clause.
The move came after the Rangers could not come to a deal with Callahan and St. Louis was pissed after his GM Steve Yzerman did not pick him for the Canadian Olympics team. He got on eventually after an injury, but the damage clearly was done and Callahan now moves on after scoring 11 goals and adding 14 assists this season and while the Rangers were said to see their captain go, it was all business. The team signed Dan Girardi and Henrik Lundqvist to contracts and there was just not enough room left.
The Rangers come into the game 19th in scoring in the league and the trade should help that along, while the team is 11th in penalty kill and power play percentage and 10th in goals against and now they have added to their biggest weakness. Losing the leadership of Callahan will hurt, but St. Louis is experienced and adding him to a team with Rock Nash and Brad Richards is huge.
The Leafs come into the game after a loss to the Blue Jackets at home and then they will next host the Philadelphia Flyers after playing against the Rangers at the Garden. The team comes into the game fourth in power play percentage and 10th in goals per game and they will have to play tough against Lundqvist on Wednesday. The Rangers will be reeling a bit from the trade, but it was a move Glen Sather felt he had to make, as the team could not afford to pay too much money to another player and that is why the deal ended up going down and there was a good chance it would only be for St. Louis, as the Rangers wanted to get scoring in return.
Check here for the Rangers and Maple Leafs live coverage.