NHL

Rangers produce homegrown talent

BOSTON — For years and years, more than a decade in fact, the Rangers have been ridiculed for not developing their own, for not bringing a core group together through the system.

Well, regardless of the warts that dot the roster, that’s no longer the case. Beyond that, the Rangers have a coach who will utilize his young players in critical situations, the latest example coming in the final minutes of Thursday’s 2-1 victory in Toronto.

Maybe John Tortorella would have leaned on Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal to protect the one-goal lead if the veterans had been in uniform. The fact is, however, that the coach sent out the Blueblood Line of Artem Anisimov, Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky for nearly all of the final 1:45, including the 45 seconds in which the Leafs had an extra attacker after pulling netminder Jonas Gustavsson.

Indeed, there was a lengthy stretch when that forward line was joined by defensemen Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, meaning that the five Rangers skaters on the ice in the game’s decisive moments had never belonged to or played for another organization.

There are flaws in this 2-2-1 team that tonight will face a Bruins club that might be the NHL’s strongest. There’s not enough elite talent. The power play is lacking a gunner. The third defense pair is mighty questionable. But there is a tapestry that’s being weaved, perhaps too slowly, but surely; a homegrown nucleus that also features Michael Del Zotto and Derek Stepan.

Include Matt Gilroy, Michael Sauer and Henrik Lundqvist, and the Rangers tonight will present a lineup of whom a full half have only played North American pro hockey in the New York organization.

Ultimately, success will depend upon a combination of general manager Glen Sather’s ability to attract elite talent through free agency (Hello, Brad Richards) and the height of the ceiling this young core can reach. Both remain to be seen, but as far as the young guys go, the Rangers are finally willing to find out.

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The silliness that pervades the NHL regarding coaches who won’t name their goaltenders in advance has infected both Tortorella and the Bruins’ Claude Julien, neither of whom has publicly committed for tonight.

Martin Biron is coming off an outstanding performance on Thursday, but he remains the understudy who goes on stage when The King requires a rest or practice time.

Lundqvist, who obviously will play tomorrow night at the Garden against the Devils, has a 1.29 goals against average in nine starts here. Beyond that, the Rangers are at home Wednesday against the Thrashers and Friday against the Hurricanes before returning to Toronto a week from tonight.

Tortorella has said that he wants to get Biron a game at the Garden fairly soon. As Biron certainly will get the call again in Toronto, there’s a reasonable chance he will get the game against Atlanta. That would mean two starts in three games.

It’s difficult, therefore, to imagine he would play tonight, giving him a hypothetical stretch of three starts in four games and four in six.

Tim Thomas, meanwhile has started and won the last four games for the Bruins, in which he has allowed a total of three goals, after Tuukka Rask yielded four in the season-opening defeat. Rask, however, has allowed four goals in three career starts against the Blueshirts.

larry.brooks@nypost.com