NHL

MEMO TO RENNEY: STOP WASTING GOMEZ

THE 5-2 Ranger loss in Toronto on Saturday – in which the Maple Leafs scored four times on five shots within 3:30 and five times on seven shots within a span of 5:21 in the final 7:24 – is an aberration over which not to obsess, given Steve Valiquette’s inexplicable meltdown in nets, the likes of which hasn’t afflicted a Ranger goaltender since Henrik Lundqvist’s abominable eight goals-against adventure in Toronto 23 months ago.

But there are issues for Tom Renney to confront, issues the head coach must address before the 10-2-1 start that became 10-3-1 becomes an aberration in itself.

Despite the stress on puck movement from the back end, the breakout doesn’t seem all that much crisper than it was a year ago when Fedor Tyutin and Marek Malik were here while Wade Redden and Dimitri Kalinin were not. Michal Rozsival has picked up almost exactly where he left off last year, and that is not a good thing. There is, as well, no intimidating physical presence on the back end.

The power play remains disjointed, as Renney remains committed to Rozsival and Redden as his first-unit point men, this despite Paul Mara’s obvious assets on the man advantage, not the least of which is a hard, accurate shot he’s never too timid to launch.

Indeed, Mara has been the Rangers’ best and most dependable defenseman since last year’s second-round playoff series against Pittsburgh. Renney appeared to recognize that in giving the Mara-Marc Staal pair the majority of the work against the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin line at the Garden on Oct. 25.

But the most distressing pattern thus far revolves around the Renney’s reluctance to give his best playmaking center, his most creative pivot and his elite puck-carrying breakdown skater – they’re all Scott Gomez, by the way – complementary wingers who belong on his line. The head coach’s attempt to spread the wealth has created a fragmented offense lacking a go-to line with which the opposition must contend.

The Rangers have committed $51M over seven years to Gomez, yet they’ve assigned him to play with Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan, wingers who probably are more compatible to third-line responsibility. They have taken their most talented center and all but marginalized him as an offensive force.

It’s as if Emile Francis looked at his squad in 1971-72 and decided to have Red Gilbert play with Walt Tkaczuk, Vic Hadfield skate with Pete Stemkowski, and Jean Ratelle center a line with Billy Fairbairn and Pierre Jarry.

It doesn’t make sense. Everyone understands that the Rangers are shy at least one top-six winger, if not two – and imagine the state of Brendan Shanahan’s distress at not getting an invite to party, anyway – but depriving Gomez of the opportunity to work with Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev (at least Naslund) is counter-productive to all concerned.

This doesn’t absolve Gomez for his erratic work thus far in all three zones, or for his carelessness in the defensive zone, where it appears he’s forgotten everything Pat Burns demanded of him.

This is simply a reminder that teams in this league win with talent at the top, and hey, have you heard the one about Mark Messier centering Greg Gilbert and Mike Hudson?

larry.brooks@nypost.com