John Tortorella laid it on the Rangers’ best players yesterday, the head coach challenging his top guys to elevate their performances in tonight’s Game 4 at the Garden the way that Washington’s had in the Caps’ 4-0 Game 3 victory on Monday.
The problem, of course, is that the Caps’ best players feature the NHL’s likely Hart winner for the second straight season, in Alex Ovechkin; a certain Norris finalist, in Mike Green; all-world talents, in Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin; and a former Hart winner, in Sergei Fedorov.
The problem, with the Rangers up 2-1 in the series despite having been decisively outplayed in six of the nine periods contested thus far, is that the Blueshirts have no one other than Henrik Lundqvist to match that pedigree, and Tortorella sure wasn’t imploring The King to elevate his game.
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“We need to get a big play at a key time,” said Tortorella. “I thought [Washington’s] top guys brought it up a notch, and that’s what our top guys are going to have to do.”
That means, as it has essentially all season, that Scott Gomez is going to have to be much crisper with his decision-making and execution on the rush. It means that Nikolai Zherdev, who had an encouraging opening 10 minutes of Game 3 before relapsing into ghost mode, is going to have to create and finish. It means that Nik Antropov is going to have to make an impact after a couple of dozy matches.
It also means that if Chris Drury can’t shoot or pass, Tortorella likely is going to have to swallow hard and keep the captain in street clothes with the objective of getting him as healthy as possible for Friday’s Game 5 in DC. No one doubts Drury’s toughness, but it’s pretty difficult to make much of a contribution playing with one arm.
If the Rangers need more from their top players, that includes Sean Avery, who has to recalibrate his game if referees are simply going to invoke their own blind justice as it applies to No. 16 whenever they please, as Dave Jackson and Kelly Sutherland did so disreputably on Monday.
Two of the four minors assessed Avery were bogus. The roughing and 10-minute misconduct Avery earned after swatting Simeon Varlamov in the mask, came after no call was made when he was knocked down into the net by John Erskine, though the puck was nowhere in the vicinity.
The NHL is on dangerous ground here. For while it’s unlikely the league is directing a campaign against Avery out of its offices in New York and Toronto, it sure does appear the NHL is condoning its referees’ blatant abuse of authority. That goes to the integrity of the games; the integrity of the playoffs.
Avery has to be impervious to the double standard. He has to be better with the puck on his stick. He has to stay on his feet. He needs to finish, too.
“Sean has done a really good job along the way of not letting anybody get inside him,” said Tortorella. “He’s trying like hell against some situations where he’s really had to stay on top of himself not to get frustrated.
“Sean has to be effective, but I don’t think we’ll win the series if he is our best offensive player.”
Probably not, but if not Avery, then who? That’s kind of what Tortorella wants to know as well.