John Tortorella entered training camp hoping that two young defensemen would emerge and be able to make the Rangers’ regular-season roster.
But that doesn’t mean the head coach envisions a pair of rookies cracking the lineup as two of the team’s six on the blue line on a regular basis.
“When I say I want two young defensemen on the team, I’m thinking of them as six-seven,” Tortorella said hours before the Blueshirts dropped last night’s preseason opener to the Bruins, 2-1, at the Garden.
“I think it’s asking way too much of rookie defensemen to play them together as a unit. Plus, the way we’re set up with Marc [Staal] and Danny [Girardi] being young enough themselves, I’m not sure it would be best to add two more kids to that mix, at least at the start.
“What I’m hoping is that a veteran defenseman might become available as things shake out during camp who we can have on our third pair with one of our kids, while we carry another as a seventh,” Tortorella said. “If it works out that a young player were sitting out too much, we’d send him to Hartford [AHL] to play games, but having kids at six-seven is the way I’d like to start, if possible.”
The Rangers have only four bona fide NHL defensemen in camp: Staal, Girardi, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden. As such, they face potential deficiencies on the blue line every bit as much as they do at center-ice, either with or without Brandon Dubinsky.
If Dubinsky remains impossible to sign, the Blueshirts conceivably could move the 23-year-old pivot for a comparable defenseman, then either seek to acquire a center — unsigned free agents Robert Lang and Dominic Moore are on the radar — or move Vinny Prospal into the middle while adding a winger.
Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto, the most prominent two young defensemen auditioning for spots, each had encouraging games last night. Gilroy, the Hobey Baker winner out of BC who signed last spring as a free agent, is 25, but he qualifies as a neophyte. Del Zotto, selected 20th overall in the 2008 Entry Draft, is 19.
Both are puck-carriers and puck-movers, inclined to lead the rush or join the play, perhaps to a fault. Not that Tortorella, who essentially demands that his defensemen are involved in the offense, finds much fault with that.
“Mistakes were made, but I’d rather see them play that way and have to harness them than try to force them,” the coach said. “They both see the ice and try to make a play rather than just bang it off the glass.”
Gilroy, who was paired with Staal at even-strength, and Del Zotto, who skated with Girardi, both played the power play point. Neither appeared out of place.
“They’re going to get a long look there during the exhibition games,” Tortorella said. “Both of them.”
*
Evgeny Grachev impressed at left wing. Artem Anisimov not so much at center. . . . Defense candidates Michael Sauer and Alexei Semenov played capably as a pair. . . . Brian Boyle had a tough night. . . . Ryan Callahan moved to the middle though Tortorella acknowledged, “Cally’s not crazy about it.” . . . Donald Brashear was booed whenever he touched the puck. . . . Christopher Higgins got the goal. . . . Rangers at Devils tonight.