SOUR GRAPES: Former Leaf rips Carlyle,

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First Mikhail Grabovski sounded off about Randy Carlyle. Now Clarke MacArthur has done the same thing.

The Ottawa Senators forward sounded like a bitter ex-Maple Leaf, saying that being a healthy scratch in the post-season by Carlyle sucked the fun out of the game for him.

“It was a tough way to end it,” MacArthur told Sportsnet. “Just getting scratched in the playoffs, that was it for me. I came back and I scored some goals that were good for the team, but I was done here after that. That was it, the game of hockey, it wasn’t exciting coming in any more. It was time to move on.”

Carlyle shrugged off MacArthur’s comments Saturday night.

“How could they say something unkind about me?” said Carlyle. “When players are gone, we don’t throw any dirt. We thank them for their effort and we hold them with highest esteem.

“If he has something negative to say, that’s up to him. I choose to ignore (it). I’ve got a new set of players. I wish him all the luck in the world.”

MacArthur, whose role with the Leafs diminished under Carlyle, signed a twoyear, $6.5-million deal with Ottawa over the summer. His former Leaf linemate, Grabovski, was bought out.

“When players are gone, we don’t throw any dirt. We thank them for their effort” RANDY CARLYLE ON CLARKE MACARTHUR

MacArthur had eight goals and 20 assists last year, playing in 40 of 48 games in the lockout-shortened season. He scored one goal in the last 18 games in which he was healthy.

Grabovski called Carlyle an “idiot” in an expletive-filled interview with TSN after the buyout. Grabovski, too, saw his ice time shrink under Carlyle. Now he’s a second-line centre again with the Washington Capitals.

“He was a guy who had 30 goals and two years of 55 or whatever points, and then Randy came in and it just didn’t work out,” MacArthur was quoted as saying of Grabovski. “They turned him into a checker and look at him now — four points in his first game, three goals. “Who is right there? I don’t know.” MacArthur acknowledged Carlyle won the 2007 Stanley Cup in Anaheim with the same gruff style.

“It’s one of those things where he runs the show there and everyone knows that and that’s the way it is,” said MacArthur. “It’s worked for him in the past, he’s got a (Stanley) Cup from that, but at the same time there’s other ways to do things, too.”