Coach John Tortorella believes Brandon Dubinsky belongs on the wing, but that’s not where No. 17 was yesterday, and that’s not where he’ll be on Wednesday when the Rangers attempt to square their first-round series against the Capitals.
“He is still a left winger but I needed to use him in the middle and he has done a good job,” Tortorella said after Dubinsky’s goal on a four-on-four situation with 1:39 remaining in the third lifted the Blueshirts to a 3-2, Game 3 victory. “We are not scoring. Our middle of the ice, I think guys have been fighting it a little bit.
“I wanted to get him and Gabby [Marian Gaborik] together.”
Dubinsky came to the Rangers as a center, and indeed was Jaromir Jagr’s pivot the second half of his 2007-08 rookie season, when No. 68 could not adjust to playing with either Scott Gomez or Chris Drury. Dubinsky played both wing and center last year, but has been on the flank all this year other than for a few shifts.
Center Brian Boyle has been just fine in this series, crashing the net regularly, in fact getting nine shots on goal in 18:31 of ice yesterday. But Derek Stepan and Artem Anisimov have been struggling badly. Indeed, Stepan moved to right wing on a line with Anisimov at center. There were still 24 seconds of four-on-four remaining when Dubinsky scored the game-winner. Interestingly enough, Tortorella had the Stepan-Anisimov combination on the ice for that.
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The Rangers were 1-for-7 in 10:33 of power play time, including a pair of failed 5-on-3s that accounted for 1:34. Erik Christensen got the power-play goal on a sharp-angle shot from the right corner at 5:30 of the second period that flew over Michal Neuvirth‘s left shoulder. Other than perhaps Gaborik — perhaps — no other Ranger could possibly have scored from that spot. . . . The Caps were 1-for-3 in 4:28 of power-play time, the disparity a reflection of the Blueshirts’ aggressiveness and puck possession.
Gaborik had three shots and has 11 for the series, but his postseason goal-less drought has reached nine games, including his final six with the Wild in 2008. . . . Only one of Alex Ovechkin‘s seven tries was on net, but that was the goal he scored at 19:00 of the second period to tie the match 1-1.
The Rangers have played 15 previous best-of-seven playoff series in which they lost the first two on the road. They’ve never rallied to win one, being swept six times, losing in five twice, losing in six six times and losing in seven once, that the 1974 semifinals to the Flyers in the Dave Schultz-Dale Rolfe game.