John Tortorella wants the Rangers to grind, but the head coach simply doesn’t have enough grinders in his lineup. Last night, though, featured the return of Sean Avery to the grinding persona that had been missing for much of the early season.
Avery consistently went to the net, battled in the corners, took hits to protect the puck, threw hits on the forecheck and engaged the Caps at essentially every whistle of the Blueshirts’ 4-2 defeat.
He played on the edge and he played with an attitude.
Avery, who took one penalty himself, drew a roughing penalty on John Erskine early in third after referees Dan Marouelli and Dean Morton had given the Washington defenseman a handful of get out of jail free cards for obvious prior fouls he committed against No. 16.
The old Avery, the old biases.
“The last two games, Sean has been better,” said Tortorella, who is habitually sparing in his praise of Avery, but did give the winger 16:03 of ice, including 3:03 of PP time. “He was instrumental on our power-play goal.
“He’s been better.”
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Tortorella’s search to complement and complete the Vinny Prospal-Marian Gaborik partnership in Brandon Dubinsky’s absence led the coach to shift Ales Kotalik up to the left side in place of Enver Lisin on the top unit for all but one even-strength shift starting early in the second period.
Rangers yielded two PPG’s to the Caps in four opportunities, marking the second time in the last three games they had yielded that many after having surrendered more than one in just one of the first 18 games. The last three games have been played without primary penalty-killers Chris Drury and Dubinsky.
When Marian Gaborik picked up a penalty late in the second, Tortorella gave Prospal, also his PK partner, a breather. The Caps scored their second PPG to take a 2-1 lead late in the second with Chris Higgins and Brian Boyle on the ice after Artem Anisimov had gotten time.
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The Rangers, 4-8-1 in last 13 and 11-9-1 overall, have scored two goals or fewer in seven of their last nine games. Ryan Callahan has one goal in his last 15, Higgins has two goals overall, Avery hasn’t scored in his last 14, Anisimov has one goal in his last nine and Lisin hasn’t scored in his last eight games. The defense corps that registered a combined 11 goals in the first 11 games, has accounted for one in the last 10.
“Not making excuses, but we have some guys here playing in situations they haven’t been used to,” said Tortorella. “Obviously the scoring hasn’t been consistent. The forechecking and secondary scoring have been a problem. We can’t get one or two goals and expect to win hockey games.
“We’re not going to be a 26, 27-percent power play at all times. We are depending on it too much. This is where the secondary scoring needs to chip in some.
‘[The Caps] win the hockey game. The power play works and they score a goal from a guy on the second or third line. That is something that needs to happen for us a little bit along the way, but we are simply not getting that.
“I’m not saying it’s because of a lack of trying, but we are not getting that. We can’t just depend on the power play.”
The Rangers next play Saturday at the Garden against the Panthers. “I can’t tell you all the answers how to fix this,” said Tortorella, “but we have to figure it out.”