Before getting the boot late last February, Tom Renney was criticized for suppressing the Rangers’ creativity during the seemingly endless string of 2-1 and 3-2 games they played with him behind the bench.
But you don’t hear those same complaints leveled at John Tortorella now that his Blueshirts seem to be stuck playing those very same low-scoring games a year later.
Coaches change. Personnel changes. The Rangers’ scoring problems do not, at least not significantly, even during the three-game winning streak they will bring into tonight’s Garden match against the Panthers.
Maybe it’s the lack of a single accomplished playmaker down the middle, or maybe it’s the lack of size necessary to consistently win puck battles down and low and then do damage by driving to the net. But this team, which has scored two goals or fewer in 18 of the past 24 games, appears as offensively challenged as the 2008-09 group that scored two or fewer in 36 of 61 before Renney was replaced.
It was safety first under Renney, a concept under which many of his forwards chafed. It’s evolving into the same type of approach under Tortorella, who is learning that safe-is-death as a philosophy might be a tad overstated when safer becomes the saner approach and risk-taking yields few rewards.
“It’s always defense first,” said Tortorella, who did not say any such thing (at least publicly) last year or during training camp. “It’s not falling back, but it’s defense first in being on the right side of the puck.
“We still want to forecheck, but it’s not about just going. It’s never been about that. In the neutral zone we’re now in kind of a hybrid forecheck [where we don’t gamble as much].”
Marian Gaborik, who was leading the NHL with 25 goals while Ryan Callahan is second on the club with nine — nothing close to the disparity on the 2000-01 Panthers, when Pavel Bure led the league with 59 goals and Viktor Kozlov was second with 14 — said yesterday that Tortorella has tweaked, if not dramatically altered, his system.
“Torts wants us to be more physical and pay more attention to defense,” said The Great Gabby. “He wants us to be safer, especially with the third man high in the zone to stop the odd-man rushes.”
Still, Brandon Dubinsky, who is one of just three forwards in the lineup to have played last year for Renney, said that though the Rangers might be more conservative than they were at the start of the season, there is no comparison to 2008-09.
“With Tom, we pretty much had a one-man forecheck with guys backing up a lot,” said Dubinsky, who got into a bit of a fight on the ice with Brian Boyle during yesterday’s optional practice. “Now, we’re still committed to the two-man forecheck and our defense is still encouraged to jump into the play if it’s there for them.
“The coaching staff is trying to teach us to be smart about our choice, about when to take risks and when not to. We still play the up-tempo game Torts wants, but we don’t want to be aggressive at the expense of giving up scoring chances.”
⇒ Henrik Lundqvist, who has allowed two goals or fewer in five straight games and eight of his last nine, is scheduled to make his 11th straight start. Backup Chad Johnson is likely to get his first start on Dec. 31 in Carolina. Or not.