There was no masking Chris Higgins’ frustration yesterday, not once the winger smashed his stick against the boards in the midst of a practice scrimmage in which things did not go his way and the puck did not go in the net.
But then, the puck has not gone off Higgins’ stick into the net yet this season, eight scoreless games and counting leading into tonight’s match at the Garden against the Sharks (7 p.m, Versus, WNYM) with the Blueshirts looking to extend their winning streak to eight games.
“This is not the start I wanted with a new team, but I can’t let it get to me,” Higgins, the 26-year-old Long Island native acquired from Montreal in the Scott Gomez trade, said after it momentarily got to him. “If I’m not picking up points, I have to contribute in other ways, on the penalty kill and by playing a strong defensive game.”
Higgins used his speed and shot off the wing to score 72 goals in his first three seasons for the Canadiens before getting just 12 a year ago while missing 25 games because of injuries in Montreal’s dysfunctional 2008-09 season. He was regarded highly enough two years ago that GM Bob Gainey balked at including him in a rental deal for Atlanta’s Marian Hossa.
But thus far this year, Higgins hasn’t been shooting the puck. He’s gone to the front looking for loose change, he’s mixed it up in the corners, but the snapshot of the winger as a sniper is faded. Indeed, Higgins has just two shots in his last three games and 19 overall, with nearly all coming from around the net.
“I definitely like to shoot the puck, but I think I’ve opted to pass maybe a little bit too much,” Higgins said. “Our line as a whole with [Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan] hasn’t been as productive as we’d like at even strength.”
The Higgins-Drury-Callahan unit had accounted for only two even-strength goals before coach John Tortorella replaced Higgins with Sean Avery late in the second period of Saturday’s soporific 4-1 victory in Toronto. Higgins moved to a unit with Artem Anisimov and Ales Kotalik, where it appears he will remain for at least the start of tonight’s game.
“I think frustration has gotten to him a bit,” said Tortorella. “He was taking shots earlier in the year and then he started passing but what worries me is that over the last couple of games there hasn’t been either, or.
“But I think he’s played in this league long enough to be able to understand how to get out of it and I have faith that he will.”
Four years with Montreal were preceded by two in Hamilton skating for the Canadiens’ AHL team. Those six seasons were spent playing a trap system that featured much back-skating through the neutral zone. Tortorella’s players don’t trap and they don’t skate backwards.
“I spent six years skating backwards a lot. Now, if you skate backwards you get yelled at,” said Higgins, who has two assists. “But that’s not an excuse and I would never use it as an excuse because eight games into the season I should be settling into this system.
“It’s just a mindset. Sometimes I find myself hesitating when I shouldn’t. But I know it will come and I know I can contribute to this team.”