March 12, 2009, New York Rangers off day story

Searching for offense

Coaching change hasn’t solved the Rangers’ woes

The Rangers managed four goals in their win against the Bruins on Sunday, but they’ve been held to two goals or less in each of their last 15 losses. They enter tonight’s game against the Predators one point out of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Foto: Getty Images

“[We] have to go to the dirty spots to get the goals.”
Ryan Callahan

Tom Renney was fired last month because the Rangers could not score goals. John Tortorella was hired because he espouses a system that is predicated on pressuring opponents with a heavy forecheck.

That system failed in the Blueshirts’ last game, a 3-0 loss to the Hurricanes on Monday. It was their 10th road loss in the last 11 and snapped a three-game winning streak.

Tortorella’s system is reminiscent of the one that GM Glen Sather used to win five Cups as coach and GM of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty. But the truth is that this version of the Rangers could employ the Edmonton Era Sather behind the bench and it still would not matter.

Sather’s free-agent Frenzy in 2007 (Scott Gomez for seven years at $51.5 million; Chris Drury for five years at $35.25) and 2008 (Wade Redden for six years at $39 million; Michael Rozsival for four years and $20 million) left the Rangers with a decided lack of scoring and without the cap flexibility to make an attempt at, oh, Mike Cammalleri come July 1.

Sather’s personnel moves have also left the Rangers without a topflight goal scorer. The 2007-08 Rangers were 25th in the league in scoring. This year, the Rangers have scored the fewest goals (158) and average the fewest goals (2.36) in the NHL. For accuracy’s sake, in the six games since the coaching change, the Rangers are averaging 2.66 per game.

“It’s probably a combination of things. We have to go to the net more and get pucks to the net,” said right wing Ryan Callahan. “Lately, other than our last game, we’ve been putting in goals with they way we’ve been playing. We’ve got to build off those (three) games we’ve had. We’re starting to get pucks to the net more and starting to get bodies there.”

Callahan has been that crease-crashing presence. In the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Bruins Sunday afternoon, Callahan scored into a half-empty net after Manny Fernandez lost the puck in his pads and spun around 180 degrees to find it. Later, in his post game press conference, Tortorella said that many times the best pass that can be made is a shot on goal because the shot on goal often leads to rebounds.

“Yeah. If you look around the league at the goals that have been scored lately, it’s all crashing the net, right within the goalmouth. So I think everybody in here knows that (we) have to go to the dirty spots to get the goals. Torts is trying to tell us to get the puck to the net and move forward with it.”

Callahan praised the quality of goaltending in the league, noting that it’s often tough to score on an initial shot. When it was noted that today’s game was not like 1980s fire wagon hockey, he laughed and said, “I wish it was still was. Goalies are too good these days.”

Rangers Notes:

At yesterday’s practice, Sean Avery skated with Scott Gomez and Nik Zherdev. Don’t expect to see that trio skating together in a game. At least, not yet.

“I have no idea. I’m just looking to get a little more balance on the lines,” Tortorella said when asked about Avery and Gomez. At times last year, the pair had skated on the same line. “That isn’t cut in stone. I’m not sure how it would work or how the lines would work. We’ll see how it goes.”

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Tortorella also announced that Henrik Lundqvist will start tonight in Nashville. Lundqvist missed Monday’s night’s 3-0 in Raleigh due to illness.

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Tonight’s game is a meeting between the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers, and the West’s eighth seed, Nashville. And while it is an important game as it pertains to the playoff races, Tortorella believes that paying attention to the standings is a waste of energy.

“The players know what it is about. Someone asked me about the standings. There’s no sense in looking at the standings,” Tortorella said following Wednesday’s practice. “They change every 10 minutes in both conferences. The thing we’re trying to stress with our guys here is to take today for what it is. We’re trying to take it each day at a time.”

The Rangers have compiled a 2-0-1 record in their last three games in Nashville, outscoring the Predators by an aggregate 10-5.

DENIS GORMAN



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