Tonight, the potentially bloody Darcy Tucker uniform with the target on its back will not be a Halloween costume like the one seen a few weeks back.

For almost seven months, the tomahawks have been sharpened. People have been clearing their throats since Game 5 of last year’s playoff series with the Maple Leafs and tonight at the Coliseum, 16,234 Islander fans will get the chance to spit it all out for the home team.

The atmosphere will be fierce, furious and unwavering for the first appearance by the Leafs on the Islanders’ home turf this season and everyone in the building, from the last row of seats down to the Isles’ bench, has had it circled on their calendars.

“We’re not scared of anybody,” Tie Domi said this week before the most anticipated hockey game of the year.

Toronto has kept secret hotel reservations and did not stay at the Marriott that’s walking distance from the Coliseum and where many opponents stay. The Leafs, thinking the worst of Islander fans, who unmercifully booed “Oh, Canada” during the playoffs, have hired on extra security for tonight’s game going just short of ordering one of the Pope’s bulletproof glass boxes to parade Tucker into town.

That’s right, Darcy Tucker, who in case you’ve been in a coma since May, cut down Michael Peca in that infamous Game 5 of the brutal seven-game series. And no, there won’t be ambulances circling Hempstead Turnpike to sell more tickets, despite what one Islander truthfully said on the radio.

“Hopefully we can take a big lead and then take care of business,” Dave Scatchard, who has committed Tucker’s No. 16 to memory, said this week. “I think we have some getting even to do. We’ve got a little vendetta to settle with the Leafs from the playoffs.”

For these Islanders, that Game 7 loss has been their defining moment. How they were pushed around by the Leafs, how they were literally hit over the head with their sticks, and how the Isles were eliminated at the hands of now the most hated team in the NHL, has been burned into their minds.

To this day, Toronto has said that the Tucker hit, in addition to the one thrown by Gary Roberts that cracked Kenny Jonsson’s helmet in that game, was clean. Tucker never was penalized for the submarine check that is now illegal, and for which Peca was recently thrown out of a game delivering a softer version on Zdeno Chara.

“It wasn’t a dirty hit,” Leafs coach Pat Quinn said. “I’ve been around a long time and seen Mike do worse to other people.”

Despite the circus atmosphere, the last-place Islanders desperately need the two points up for grabs tonight, coming off a 2-1 win Tuesday against the Canucks. So after all the gloves have been returned to their rightful owners, there will still be a game to play – and win.