April 2, 2009, New York Rangers off-day story for Metro
Testing their 'D'
The Rangers' defense have their work cut out for them down the stretch:
Date/Team/NHL scoring rank:
Tonight/Carolina/16th in NHL.
April 4/Boston/2nd in NHL.
April 7/Montreal/13th in NHL.
April 9/Philadelphia/4th in NHL.
April 12/Philadelphia/4th in NHL.
Owning the inside
Tortorella daring Rangers’ opponents to beat them from deep
Either John Tortorella just realized he had Henrik Lundqvist in the net or the Rangers finally decided to get physical.
Either way, the Blueshirts’ defense was working in Monday’s 3-0 win over the rival Devils.
The Blueshirts had allowed the Devils to put 38 shots on Lundqvist. Unlike last Thursday’s 5-4 shootout loss in Atlanta and last Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the star-laden Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers forced the Devils to take shots from the outside instead of yielding the prime scoring area — the middle of the ice.
“We have struggled with the middle of the ice. Giving up [Sidney] Crosby’s goal … we talked about it the last two periods of that Pittsburgh game,” Tortorella said earlier this week. “We kind of backed off our pinching because we felt we were giving up the middle. If you’re not going to pinch in the neutral zone, you should not give up the neutral zone.”
Forcing poor quality shots and having one of the premier netminders behind them was the formula to grab two points in a crowded playoff race.
“We tightened it up. Our forwards did an awesome job of forechecking and not giving them a lot of room, making them dump a lot of pucks,” said defenseman Derek Morris. “Our system was to change it up; have our ‘D’ in the middle, give them the outside shots because we have one of the best goalies in the league — if not the best.”
Brandon Dubinsky’s analysis of the losses in Atlanta and Pittsburgh was succinct. “I think forwards can get (caught up) a little bit puck watching when they need to come back,” said Dubinsky.
With a playoff berth not sewn up and five games remaining against four of the league’s top 16 goal scoring teams starting tonight in Carolina, the Rangers are going to have to continue to play Tortorella’s puck pressure system while eliminating the middle of the ice.
“It’s going to be a process to get the full team concept that we want. Right now we’re just trying to hold the middle of the ice,” said Tortorella. “We’re still trying to be very aggressive in the offensive zone, we’re just taking some things out in the neutral zone.”
Carolina (Eric Staal) and Philadelphia (Jeff Carter) can lay claim to two of the league’s premier individual scorers while the Bruins (nine players with at least 15 goals) and Montreal (11 players with at least 10 goals) can generate offense from multiple sources. So, yes, not surrendering the middle of the ice will be vital for a Rangers team that has playoff aspirations.
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:18 AM
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