NHL

Rangers need to ramp up mindset

The last-place Rangers took a little extra time in their video session yesterday morning before practice, and the theme of that instruction soon became crystal clear.

“The only thing we should focus on is our mindset,” coach John Tortorella said. “Somewhere along the way, the mindset, if there is even one there, is the wrong one and that’s what needs to be corrected right now.

“So hopefully we touched upon the right things, and we have an understanding of where we need to be mentally.”

The same sentiment was reiterated over and over again in the locker room, where the players tried to make sense of their demoralizing 0-2 start while getting ready for tonight’s Garden match against the Bruins.

“I think it was a good day to see where we’re really at on the video, [and] it was an eye-opener for some guys,” Brad Richards said. “But as a team, we know that we’re not where we need to be with the details, but it’s even better to see it in real life on video, and then get a good practice.”

The ugliness started in Boston on Saturday, when the Bruins pushed the Rangers around and beat them at their own game — aggression and determination. It carried over to Sunday, when the Blueshirts opened their home season with a 6-3 loss to the Penguins that saw their defense so badly beaten, Tortorella pulled his Vezina Trophy-winning goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, halfway through just to save him the embarrassment.

“I think it’s just the mindset,” said defenseman Dan Girardi. “We’ve got to be mentally sharp and know what our responsibilities are defensively.

“It’s the whole lineup, it’s not just a couple guys. I think everyone is just kind of not playing up to our standards with what we have to do to be successful.”

Success is defined a little differently for the Rangers now, as they’re coming off a season when they finished atop the conference and were within two wins of making it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

“We have the same group in here as we did last year, we know we can do it, we just have to get out there and do it,” captain Ryan Callahan sai. “As a group we’re not overly hyped-up about it or concerned about [the 0-2 start].”

In the lockout-shortened 48-game season, a start like the Rangers have had can be a bad omen for a weak team. But the Rangers have shown over the past couple years to be nothing if not resilient, and that stems from the identity they have fostered under Tortorella.

They are a team that prides itself in blocked shots, winning individual puck battles, being sound defensively, and outworking its opponent. It just so happens that team hasn’t shown up to work yet.

“We place a lot of emphasis on our identity, but so do a lot of teams,” Tortorella said. “Plain and simple, we’re not hard enough mentally and that certainly translates into physically. So that needs to change.”