Talent is the X-factor in the NHL that puts teams over the top in the playoffs but during the course of the 82-game grind of the regular season, work ethic trumps all.
And this is where the Rangers, needy when it comes to upper echelon skill, are making their living this year.
This is where the Rangers are making their stand and their statement, off their commitment to getting down and dirty, to blocking shots, to competing in the tight areas of the ice. They are continuing to at least try to play the game the way Ryan Callahan plays it even with their inspirational force out of the lineup for two weeks and going on eight.
“We feed off Cally, and the way he plays is contagious, but at the same time, we haven’t changed our approach,” said Brandon Dubinsky, whose empty-netter sealed last night’s 3-1 victory over the Devils at Prudential Center. “We’re not going to replace Ryan Callahan any more than we were going to replace Gabby [Marian Gaborik] and the way he scores goals when he was out, but we’re not going to change our focus or our style.
“We’re not a pretty enough team to do that, anyway.”
John Tortorella faces a delicate balance in coaching this team that rarely dazzles, but always seems to be in the midst of some 5-2 or 8-3-1 stretch of winning hockey.
There is no doubt that, as the Rangers coach has said repeatedly after last week’s promotion of Mats Zuccarello, that the Rangers need to layer talent on top of the foundation of work ethic they have laid this season. It is, however, more critical that the Rangers continue to dance with what has brung them success through the first half, and that means in-your-face hockey with a hard forecheck and a cycle game to keep the puck down low.
“I don’t want to change the mindset of the hockey team or the identity we have created with our play below the hash marks, but I think if we’re going to get better it’s incumbent on us to add more talent,” Tortorella said, while explaining why he is committed to giving Zuccarello the opportunity to prove he belongs.
But Tortorella isn’t going to insist on pounding a round peg into a square hole. After opening with Zuccarello on the first unit with Gaborik and Derek Stepan for the second straight game, the coach switched off during a first period in which the Rangers lost too many battles and spent way too much time in their own end.
Reaching back to his baseline, Tortorella shifted Dubinsky into the Norwegian neophyte’s spot on the top line while giving Zuccarello just three shifts in the second and two in the third as the Rangers improved their play. The rookie played 7:56 (2:05 on the power play) in his third big league match.
“I just wanted to change lines and see if there was something else,” said Tortorella, whose team was outshot 16-5 in the first period. “Plus, I always had it in my mind to come back to Dubinsky-Stepan-Gaborik.
“Zuke didn’t seem comfortable in some spots, I thought that Sean [Avery] gave us some good minutes so I wanted to bump him up,” he said. “It wasn’t one particular thing with [Zuccarello].”
When it got down to it, the Rangers turned it around because of the work of their blue-collar laborers. That’s who they are. That’s what they are.
Neither they nor their coach should forget it.