April 27, 2009, Washington Capitals-New York Rangers Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 6 game story for Metro NY Newspaper
Rangers ripping apart at the seams
NHL.
The Rangers are now at the precipice. With one more date on the schedule tomorrow night, there is an opportunity for the Blueshirts to unite and author the kind of spring-to-summer run that is the stuff of legend. Alternately, what started as a promising season is staring into the abyss of unfulfilled potential.
The Rangers' Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Washington Capitals is tied 3-3 after yesterday's appearances-are-deceiving 5-3 loss. The last time the Rangers were in a Game 7 was the 1994 Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver.
“I think there were breakdowns and they capitalized. It’s as simple as that. We just have to be better,” said defenseman Wade Redden, who was one of the culprits that allowed the Caps to go up by as many as four goals. “We have to be stronger. If we make mistakes, we have to cover them up. It’s part of the game. We just have to be more determined.”
The disgraceful effort in Game 6 completed 45 of the most surrealistic hours in the annals of the franchise.
Before Game 5 at the Verizon Center on Friday, the Rangers announced that Sean Avery was a healthy scratch due to his on-ice behavior in games 3 and 4. In the third period of that game, a 4-0 loss, Rangers coach John Tortorella was involved in a confrontation with a Capitals fan. Tortorella squirted the fan with a water bottle, then threw the bottle over the glass and it hit a female fan in the head before grabbing Aaron Voros’ stick and jabbing in the direction of the first fan
On Saturday, the league announced Tortorella was suspended for his actions. As one might suspect, the Garden did not support the NHL’s decision.
“We disagree with the suspension and will have no further comment,” in a statement released by the organization Saturday night. Tortorella was in the building yesterday— NBC aired a shot of the head coach sitting in GM Glen Sather’s luxury box—but was not allowed to be in the dressing room after 12 noon and was banned from talking to the players and coaches. Jim Schoenfeld replaced Tortorella behind the bench.
Schoenfeld, he of the infamous “Have another donut” confrontation with Don Koharski following Game 3 of the 1988 then-Wales Conference Finals, defended the coach to the assembled media before yesterday's game, saying that Tortorella reacted only after hearing his players being slandered.
Less than a half hour before the game, the Garden made public a letter from Glen Sather to Commissioner Gary Bettman, in which the GM requested that the Capitals face disciplinary action for “gross negligence in ensuring the safety of the Rangers bench” and charged that fans made derogatory remarks about defensemen Staal and Dan Girardi having a homosexual relationship during Friday night’s game. NHL spokesperson John Dellapina told Metro that the league had made “provisions for (Sunday’s) game and a possible Game 7.”
In his post-game press conference after yesterday’s matinee, Schoenfeld said that referees Brad Meier and Bill McCreary and linesmen Pierre Racicot and Tony Sericolo ignored Brandon Dubinsky’s complaint that he was bit by Washington’s Shaone Morrisonn following a second period scrum. Instead, Dubinsky was assessed a 10 minute misconduct. Schoenfeld was also upset that a penalty was not called on Washington’s Donald Brashear for a late elbow to Blair Betts.
“I didn’t see it at the time. I saw it on the replay and it was a late hit to the head. It was pretty vicious. Bettsy did not see him coming. He is hurt significantly. It was a late hit to the head; the league will look at it and make their own ruling,” Schoenfeld said. “Dubinsky had to get a tetanus shot because he was bit in the arm in a scrum. I don’t know what affect that will have on him so his status will remain in question. As (Dubinsky) was trying to show the linesman, instead of looking he game him a 10-minute misconduct.”
The drama that swirled around the Rangers has overshadowed a multitude of flaws. As the series has progressed, the Rangers expected to provide scoring have regressed to the point of non-entity. The sextet of Gomez, Redden, Nik Zherdev, Chris Drury, Markus Naslund and Nik Antropov had combined for four goals, six assists, and 10 points while compiling a minus-9 rating in the first five games. Comparatively speaking, Washington’s Alex Semin had four goals, two assists, six points, a plus-4 rating to his name coming in the same time frame.
“I think there is a big double whammy there. (The) big offensive guys have not gotten it going (and) what happens is that their part of the job falls on someone else,” Schoenfeld said. “Now someone else has to do their job, plus. Kids like Callahan, kids like Dubinsky, like Staal and Girardi. With the penalties they kill, (Fredrik) Sjostrom (and) Betts. There is so much we have to do defensively because the other guys aren’t doing their job offensively. We are banking on the fact that these guys have enough courage, pride and want to find a way to get it done.”
Franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has also struggled. The Rangers’ lone All-Star has given up 14 goals with a .876 save percentage in the last four games and has been benched in Games 5 and 6. It goes hand-in-hand that the Rangers have dropped three of the four games while their goaltender has struggled.
“It is not a fun feeling to sit there, knowing that obviously you want to be on the ice playing. Then again, you start to think about what is to come on [tomorrow]. The only thing I can do is get a good practice [today] and prepare for it,” Lundqvist said. “It is hockey. It happens. You just have to deal with it. I have to look over the game and see what I can do better. As a team, we have to see what we can do better. It was a big game and we came up short. It is definitely not over. We just have to regroup here (and) get ready for the next one. Game 7, anything can happen.”
Three things we saw yesterday
1 Out of control. The hiring of John Tortorella was supposed to bring accountability to a Rangers locker room that had supposedly grown too comfortable under nice guy Tom Renney. Through the first six games of this series, which is now tied up, the Rangers have been penalized to the tune of 114 penalty minutes. While Tortorella was serving a one-game suspension for an altercation with the fans in Game 5, Washington went 2-for-2 on the power play yesterday. Rangers replacement coach Jim Schoenfeld said there were too many players who were only “sort of involved” — hello, Nik Zherdev, who has yet to score and missed a wide-open net yesterday.
2 Sweet revenge. In a little more than three seasons with the Rangers, Tom Poti was a whipping boy because he wasn’t a puck-rushing defenseman. Poti, though, seems to have found his niche in Washington. He has two goals, four assists, six points and is a plus-1 in this series. Yesterday, Poti scored at 17:14 in the first to put the Caps up 3-1 and assisted on three others.
3 Net gain. In the five games since he replaced Jose Theodore as Washington’s No. 1 goaltender, Simeon Varlamov has three wins, two shutouts and has only given up six goals (.9358 save percentage). Varlamov held the Rangers to 2-of-8 on the power play yesterday. Meanwhile, Henrik Lundqvist has been pulled twice in the last four games and surrendered 14 goals Remind us, which team was supposed to have the franchise goaltender?
Game 7: Tomorrow night at the Verizon Center, 7 (MSG)
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:03 AM
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