* Injuries notwithstanding, this season’s Rangers are not using the John Tortorella system of closing shooting lanes by blocking shots. The system worked last season, but now the opposition is finding the seams in the defense and not as many Rangers are willing to close them with their bodies. Here’s an idea, coach: Get the wings to back-check, therefore creating less time for the opposition to line up shots from inside the blue line, and assign a player to guard the slot. This is not my idea, but that of 1960s Canadiens coach Toe Blake, who won Lord Stanley’s Cup eight times.
ELIO VALENTI
Brooklyn
* There have been many coaches who have won by browbeating and intimidating their players, forcing them to perform their jobs under the threat of being traded, sent down or released. From the outside looking in, I think the Rangers’ John Tortorella is that kind of coach. It is an act that wears very thin very fast, and from watching the games I think the Rangers are fed up with it. Instead of turning their hate toward the other team they let the coach take the hit for not winning. I may be wrong, and I’ll be happy if I am, what I see is a team with its heart ripped out.
KEN DREXLER
North Woodmere, N.Y.
No ‘Grand’ plan
* The Yankees organization has been one of the very best in baseball. That said, why isn’t there a young player in their minor league system who can come up and fill the void left by Curtis Granderson’s injury? Figuring they would be needed for roughly five or six weeks, that doesn’t seem too much of a stretch.
GENE VanAMBURGH
Albany, N.Y.