BOSTON — It has been two games since The Mighty Line has fallen, and it sure looks as if the Rangers are better for it.
Since coach John Tortorella split up his top-heavy combination of Rick Nash, Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik, the Rangers have won two games in a row and gotten goals from the depths of their roster. It is exactly the type of balance Tortorella was looking for, and even if the new combinations are tenuous, the results are irrefutable.
“You can’t always rely on your top guys,” captain Ryan Callahan said yesterday before the Rangers (6-5-0) flew to Boston for tonight’s match against the powerhouse Bruins (8-1-1). “Everybody has to chip in, and when teams are successful, they have scoring throughout the lineup. It’s got to be the same way here.”
It was Callahan’s return from a partially separated left shoulder that sparked the line shuffle, starting with Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Islanders. That night they got two goals from 19-year-old J.T. Miller, who had the benefit and comfort of skating alongside the responsible Callahan and fellow rookie Chris Kreider.
“Both of them, they’re pretty mature guys,” Callahan said of Miller and Kreider. “They’re young, but they carry themselves well [and] they approach the game the correct way. Just the first couple games playing with them, they bring a lot of energy and it’s fun.”
In Sunday’s 5-1 win over the Lightning, the Rangers got two goals from Carl Hagelin, one from Arron Asham and one from Callahan. Nash, the star, added one in garbage time, but by then he had been carried to the finish line on the back of his underlings.
“I don’t really think about that stuff,” Nash said. “I worry about what I can control, and that’s on the ice so I don’t think about those things.”
Although Richards and Gaborik are still together — joined on the left by Taylor Pyatt, allowing Gaborik to go back to his natural right wing — it can’t be said Nash was dropped. Rather, third-year pivot Derek Stepan and second-year speedster Hagelin were promoted, as their line with Nash more often than not that sees the opposing team’s best defensive pair.
“We’re trying to achieve the same thing,” Nash said. “We’re thinking defense first and we’re trying to gain all of our offense from defense. No matter what line you’re on, that’s how you approach it.”
Of course, with all of Tortorella’s impatience and tinkering, nothing can be expected to have any semblance of longevity. All 23 men on the active roster know that they should never be comfortable in any position, and that’s especially true with line combinations.
“They [Nash-Richards-Gaborik] could go back together. Who knows?” Tortorella said. “I just watch the game, watch how our players are playing, and if we need to change some things, we go about doing that. Who knows what happens in another week.”
One thing the coach does know is he likes the production he’s getting now, and that’s something he doesn’t want to see fade away. That also means the odds are in favor of Brian Boyle being a healthy scratch tonight for the third straight game, as the coach’s praise for the fourth line continued to be effusive.
“We played a more balanced game [Sunday] among our lines, and that can go away quickly if we don’t do the right things,” Tortorella said. “If people can contribute and stay steady and we can use all our people throughout a game, it can help us through March and April.”