NHL

Tortorella tweaking Rangers’ line combos

STIRRED UP: Fleet winger Carl Hagelin is one Ranger who found himself working with a new unit in practice yesterday, as coach John Tortorella tinkered with his forward lines. (Getty Images)

John Tortorella finally admitted it.

The Rangers coach yesterday put definitive words to what he has inferred for weeks, coming to terms with the fact that maybe the lockout and the shortened preparation for this 48-game season has to be the cause of his team’s lackluster start, especially when it comes to secondary scoring.

“It’s such a strange year with a lot of teams, a lot of players struggling because of a lack of camp,” Tortorella said as his 2-3-0 team prepares for tonight’s Garden match against the Flyers. “Let’s face it, that’s the reason.”

What prompted Tortorella to make that admission were more questions about the sustainability of his top line — Rick Nash, Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik — who through five games have combined for 18 of the team’s total 36 points.

“It would be nice to keep that line together, but other guys need to get going,” Tortorella said. “I can’t get a dependency there because if that struggles, we have no chance.

“I have got to find a way to get [other players] into some situations where they get some confidence back. So that’s where it comes, maybe splitting that line up.”

A noted line juggler going back to his days with the Lightning, with whom he won a Stanley Cup in 2004, Tortorella did not break up his top line yesterday, but did do some more mixing and matching below it. Most notably, he put speedy winger Carl Hagelin alongside center Derek Stepan and captain Ryan Callahan, making what is certainly a defensively responsible unit, but one that needs to produce offense if the Rangers are able to find that needed scoring boost.

“I maybe played well two out of five games, which isn’t good enough,” said Hagelin, who has zero points and a rating of minus-1. “I need to play better. I started feeling better as [Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Maple Leafs] went on. The whole team started playing better, and I think it comes from that, too, the whole team starts playing better and you start feeling better.

“Hopefully that last game was a step in the right direction. I know I have a lot in me, I just felt good last game and hopefully I can draw from that.”

Hagelin is used to being a toy in the rotating-line game, as he has been since joining the Rangers last season. He started this training camp on a line with Nash and Richards, but was swapped out for Gaborik by the third game of the season after the Rangers had lost the first two.

“I’m ready to play and ignite some lines,” said Hagelin, who had 14 goals and 38 points last year in 64 regular-season games. “Just try to get out there and get my skating going and be more aggressive, so it’s definitely no problem playing with different players.”

The problem is finding some balance behind the mega-line, which led the team to try to sign veteran free agent Jason Arnott over the weekend before the 38-year-old failed his physical on Sunday. As they continue to scour the market — now devoid of former Ranger and Devil Petr Sykora, who reportedly signed with SC Bern of the Swiss Elite League — the emphasis will be on who’s here now.

“It’s a concern on that part of it, the balance,” Tortorella said. “I think there are a number of other people that need to be more consistent in all phases of the game. Some did last game, but we still need more throughout our lineup to create some balance.”

* There was no update on the health of rookie forward Chris Kreider, dealing with a bone chip in his ankle but seen walking around the team’s facility without impediment.