BOSTON – Forty-two seconds remained in the third period in Atlanta on Thursday, the Rangers were trailing 5-3 after scoring three goals in 9:23, and Henrik Lundqvist had just reached the bench in order to be replaced by an extra attacker . . . named Blair Betts?
It marked the second straight time Tom Renney tabbed the checking center to fill that role, the coach previously having done so last Saturday in the final minute of the Blueshirts’ 3-1 Garden loss to Ottawa.
But why? And why, smack in the face of a scoring drought that cannot be explained away simply by citing a lack of chemistry (How on Earth, then, did first-year Islander Billy Guerin record a hat trick Thursday for a team that has eight new players on it?), does Renney continue to use Betts on an alleged production line while employing offensively-skilled freshman Brandon Dubinsky between hands-of-stone wingers Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg?
The Rangers are 2-4 heading into this afternoon’s game here against the Bruins, with the faceoff moved up three hours to 4 p.m. in order not to conflict with tonight’s Indians-Red Sox ALCS Game 6 madness at Fenway. The Rangers have lost four of five since defeating the Panthers at the Garden on opening night, and they’re losing because they simply cannot score goals at even-strength.
The malady is hardly the fault of industrious Betts, an excellent fourth-line pivot whom Renney insisted on using as a second-line center for about a quarter of last season and has utilized on the third line since the third period of the opener. But Betts’ use is a symptom of the difficulties Renney has encountered in completing a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces all seem to have come from different boxes.
Get this: The Rangers have been shut out in 12 of the season’s 18 periods. They have scored 10 of their 13 total goals in three periods (four in the third period of the opener against the Panthers, three in the first period of last Friday’s victory over the Caps, and three in Thursday’s third period). They have scored seven goals at even strength, two in the five games since the opener.
Jagr, who has scored once, has been on the ice for one even-strength goal since the opener. Chris Drury hasn’t been on the ice for an even-strength goal since opening night. Neither have Betts nor wingers Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan. Then again, with those two even-strength goals in the past five games, Marcel Hossa is the only forward on the ice for both, and he’s doubtful for this afternoon after sitting out yesterday’s practice with the hip-flexor injury that caused him to miss Thursday’s match.
“I don’t think this team is discouraged or frustrated,” Brendan Shanahan, who has one goal while leading the NHL with shots, said. “We’re determined to get this right.
“This is too good of a group [not to]. I don’t mean talent-wise, I mean people-wise. This group will work through it.”
The group will work through it, however, only if the good people within it begin to perform.