NY Rangers drop OT decision to Maple Leafs in Martin St. Louis' debut with ...

Howard Simmons/New York Daily News

Martin St Louis debuts with the Rangers in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs at MSG.

MAPLE LEAFS 3, RANGERS 2 (OT)

Get shorty.

Shorties almost ruled on the ice at the Garden Wednesday, starting with 5-foot-8 Martin St. Louis' acquisition from the Lightning and concluding with two New York shorthanded goals that keyed a Rangers comeback from a two-goal deficit.

The Blueshirts, however, fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2, in overtime on Tyler Bozak's second goal of the game, the Rangers' first since trading Ryan Callahan hours earlier.

Ryan McDonagh and Dominic Moore scored shorthanded goals 79 seconds apart on the same Leafs power play less than seven minutes into the third period. Moore also assisted on McDonagh's goal. Henrik Lundqvist rebounded from two straight losses to make huge saves that kept the Blueshirts in it, however, he and the Rangers (33-26-4, 70 points) now are 0-2-1 in their last three games.

St. Louis, meanwhile, was held without a point in his Ranger debut.

The 2004 NHL MVP and Stanley Cup champion with a no-move clause in his contract requested a trade from Tampa Bay to only one city, the Big Apple, and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman obliged in time for St. Louis to join the Rangers for Wednesday night's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden.

St. Louis, 38, started on the right wing of center Brad Richards, his good friend and former teammate on the '04 champion Lightning, and received cheers from the home crowd when he first stepped on the ice and fired a one-timer on net toward the end of his first shift.

Alain Vigneault said undoubtedly Glen Sather's decision to swap captain Ryan Callahan for St. Louis would affect the locker room, but that the club was excited about its new addition.

'There's no doubt taking a player of (Callahan's) magnitude from our dressing room is going to have an impact,' the coach said before Wednesday's game. 'That being said, though, we're also adding a player that's got great presence, he's won a Cup, has just come back and won a gold medal (with Team Canada), so we're bringing in a good player and a solid individual ... Hopefully bringing in this type of individual and this type of player is going to ease that transition.'

Yzerman's exclusion of St. Louis from Team Canada for the Sochi Winter Olympics soured their relationship for good. The Canada GM eventually added St. Louis to the roster in place of the injured Steven Stamkos, but it led to St. Louis' 'request to leave,' as Yzerman called it on Wednesday.

St. Louis, who resides in Connecticut in the offseason, also reportedly had requested a trade to New York back in 2009, prior Yzerman's tenure. No matter; it's the Rangers' gain.

The Blueshirts (33-26-3, 69 points), who entered Wednesday on a two-game losing streak, welcome such an established scorer. When the trade was completed, St. Louis immediately became the Rangers' leading scorer by 17 points with 61 points, which ranked eighth in the entire NHL as of game time Wednesday.

St. Louis, who stands a diminutive 5-foot-8, 183 pounds, is a two-time Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL's leading scorer, most recently in last year's lockout season. His acquisition was expensive, but his playmaking ability and quickness are assets that should fit nicely into Vigneault's speed-based offensive system. He also carries a relatively modest $5.625 million annual cap hit that will come off the books at the end of next season.

'He's in tremendous shape,' Rangers GM Glen Sather said. 'He lives in Connecticut, works out with Brad Richards all summer. Everything I've been told about him is he's a dynamic specimen as far as his conditioning is concerned. He's worked very hard at it. He's dedicated. He's always been the hardest working guy on the team, and I don't think that's gonna change here. I think he's going to be an inspiration to everyone on our club.'

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