A long time ago before the lockout and in a galaxy far away in Tampa, there was a coach who proudly ran his team under the guiding principle that safe was death and indeed won a Stanley Cup under that banner.
But now John Tortorella disavows that philosophy with the zeal of a reformed sinner, much like a candidate for office who was for something before he was against it.
The problem, however, is that the coach was onto something in his prior life. Because safe has been death for the Rangers, at least as the axiom has applied to the Blueshirts’ offense since Tortorella deemed it too risky to allow Chris Kreider to continue taking a regular turn on the ice, not that the club was exactly lighting it up like the 1980’s Oilers until then, either.
Since Tortorella made decision to limit the 21-year-old rookie to fourth-line cameo appearances in the wake of a pair of deficient plays in the defensive zone in Game 4 led to a pair of Capitals’ goals in Washington’s 3-2 victory, the Rangers have scored one pure five-on-five goal in 144:52 covering more than seven periods, and that by Anton Stralman in the first period of Game 5.
Not a forward has scored a pure even-strength goal since Tortorella benched Kreider while concurrently and mysteriously demoting playmaking pivot Derek Stepan from a top-six role to a checking line assignment between Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust while elevating checking center Brian Boyle to the spot between Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov.
The moves have failed. Where the Kreider-Stepan-Callahan line could generate speed off the rush through the neutral zone against the Caps, and did when previously united, the Rangers have been stagnant and station to station since the realignment, the reasons for which have been placed into Tortorella’s accordion folder of confidential material that has grown larger than the Penske File.
Nothing is happening. The Rangers are creating next to nothing off the rush. There’s no flair to their game, an element that Kreider brought to the lineup when Tortorella entrusted him with ice time, which was a late as the three overtimes of Game 3 when one mistake could have meant defeat but during which the apprentice received 20 shifts, the same number as Marian Gaborik.
No one is minimizing the importance of sound play away from and on the other side of the puck. But the Rangers are dying on the five-on-five vine. The power play is unreliable, but even so, a team has to be able to score at even-strength in order to win anything. That stands to reason considering that 86.4 percent of this series has been played at even-strength.
The teams with the top three rated playoff power plays are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Florida. They’re all done. The Kings, probably the most impressive team in the tournament thus far, are 15th out of 16 at 8.5 percent off 4-for-47 with the man advantage, better only than Chicago.
The Bruins won the Stanley Cup last year with a PP ranked 14th at 11.4 percent in going 10-for-88, better only than first-round losers Pittsburgh and the Rangers. But Boston dominated at even strength.
Yet here the Rangers go grimly about their business, a kid with speed, a big shot and a dramatic flair reduced to being a benchwarmer while a playmaking center works on a checking line.
Seven periods have been played since those moves were made in the guise of safety; seven periods of offensive death have followed.
There is a tomorrow, but maybe only one for the Rangers.
Now is the time to attack, the time to seize the moment; the time for Tortorella to reunite Callahan, Stepan and Kreider.
It’s time for the All Americans in Game 7.
larry.brooks@nypost.com