Get the puck in, get it out was the lesson reinforced in the video room of a 10-3-1 team by coach Tom Renney yesterday. That way, when you get knocked down, you can get back up.
Saturday night in Toronto, the Rangers suffered a five alarm, smoke-inhaling, hotter-than-even-a-Sean-Avery-date kind of meltdown, turning a 2-0 lead in the final eight minutes into a 5-2 loss. As bad as it was, the trick now is to make that bad as it will get.
Last February in Montreal, the Rangers squandered a 5-0 lead into an overtime loss and became so discombobulated they won the next four, and seven of the next eight. It really was just one game the Rangers blew sky high in Toronto, unless the Rangers blow another one tonight at the Garden against the struggling Islanders (7 p.m, MSG, MSG+).
“You just don’t,” said Chris Drury, asked how not to let a game like that get a team down. “It’s just a loss in a long season, a bad seven minutes for us, over and done.”
Apparently, so is Scott Gomez’s time with Nigel Dawes. The Rangers’ best center, underachieving with 11 points in 14 games, was reunited with Markus Naslund during practice in hopes that more of Gomez’s passes turn into goals. Dawes, who only has one, moved alongside Chris Drury and Petr Prucha.
“I don’t know if there’s more finish [in Naslund] than a guy like Nigel, but Markus has some traction right now so I like that combination,” said Renney. “I think Ryan [Callahan, who remains with Gomez] is a good player with good hockey sense who is getting some finish himself. So it might be a pretty good line.
“Nigel has [been] creeping up [the scoring chance] ladder, but he’s been hitting posts or the goalie has made some good saves. Nigel is a goal scorer, I think. [But] if it doesn’t translate into goals you ask yourself: ‘Is his contribution what we need?’ ”
Score or die. Had Drury buried a good power-play chance at 2-0, the Toronto game probably was over. The Rangers insist it’s dead regardless.
“Completely preventable, we beat ourselves,” said Renney. “You turn the page quickly as you can.
“Obviously we have had the good fortune of a decent start. I really like, as I did last year, the confidence and leadership. We have been able to play really well this year when we have been challenged. I don’t expect us to not meet the required needs of passion, emotion and execution.”
Better power play execution than 14.3 percent will be required to keep winning, and the Rangers spent some time on the man advantage instead of the usual incorporation of power-play principles into other drills.
“We have been able to get in little bit of that every time we practice,” said Renney. “It’s not rocket science, it’s getting pucks to the net.”
It’s also not fishing them out of your own. Henrik Lundqvist, who had a higher level of skill than Steve Valiquette to spare the Rangers the carnage Saturday, at least dodged any potential psychic scarring. Lundqvist will be back in goal tonight.