The Rangers are close. Despite losing their past five games (0-4-1), by a total of six goals, their attitude remains admirable, and they are giving the kind of effort fans like and have come to expect.
“It’s the most positive five-game losing streak I think I’ve been a part of,” Ryan Callahan said after yesterday’s practice.
John Tortorella spent the majority of the near two-hour session smiling.
“We haven’t lost a sense of what this team is,” Tortorella said. “I like the team. This is a good group of guys. It is a young team. We’re going to have some bumps. This is really our first major bump and it’s February. We’re not far away.”
No, but time is not on their side. The Rangers, who are in seventh in the Eastern Conference, are four points ahead of ninth-place Atlanta, where they play tomorrow night.
Tortorella discussed the silver linings taken from the losses, but was quick to point out that they ultimately are decoration, that encouraging as the games are, they look no different in the standings.
“I think we’ve done some really good things in the games we’ve lost,” Tortorella said. “You can keep on going back to that, but you have to win a game. They know where we’re at. They know what’s at stake. I trust them that they know how to get out of this.”
The fastest way will be by improving the power play, which the team devoted nearly half of yesterday’s practice working on. Ranked 24th in the league before last night, the Rangers have scored on 15.4 percent of power plays and are 3-for-21 in the past five games. The biggest problem, stressed incessantly, is the simplest one — to take more shots.
“There’s no special formula,” Tortorella said. “There’s nothing we can come up with, that, bang, we’ve got a great power play. It’s a matter of executing. We want them to be creative. We’re not trying to overcoach it.”
And as far as who will be in goal tomorrow night, Tortorella said, “Don’t even ask.”
“That’s a good question,” said Henrik Lundqvist, benched the past two games in favor of Martin Biron. “I’ll work hard and wait for the coaches to tell me if I’m gonna play. I know the last couple [of] starts I had, I have to be better. We need the points.”
Lundqvist hasn’t played since last Thursday night’s 3-2 loss to the Devils in which he allowed three goals on 12 shots and was pulled in the second period. If not tomorrow, Lundqvist will be back soon. And when he returns, Tortorella expects a return to form.
“Henrik is a pro,” Tortorella said. “He’s gonna be back. He’s gonna be fine. I love the way he competes. Is he happy? No. He’s not happy at all.
“We can’t make everyone happy,” he said. “But Henrik understands what this is about. He wanted it too. He wanted to get some practice time in. This will be good for him and we’re expecting big things out of him.”
DRURY OUT SIX WEEKS
Tortorella said yesterday Chris Drury is scheduled to undergo surgery on his left knee that will keep him sidelined for an estimated six weeks. The date of the surgery has not been announced.
Drury, who had missed the past two games, had fluid drained from the knee on Friday.
“They’re gonna go in and scrape his knee and take a look at it,” Tortorella said. “They haven’t really pinpointed anything. That guy has played hard for a long time and I just think it has worn on him. It certainly hasn’t been getting better. He tried like hell to keep on playing, but it has gotten to the point where he can’t.”