Lines come and lines go, often under a coach like John Tortorella, directing a team that often struggles to score.
Artem Anisimov, Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky did not have that problem through most of Marian Gaborik’s absence early in the season. And last night, when Callahan scored twice and Anisimov and Dubinsky once each while dominating Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin, these three young Rangers did not have that problem again nor, frankly, look as if they ever will again.
“They got stale, even Cally,” Tortorella said after Henrik Lundqvist’s fifth shutout, a 7-0 blasting of the reeling Caps. “He was around the puck [Saturday in Columbus] more than he was for the last couple weeks.
“He’s going to be on the ice regardless because he does so many things away from the puck. But this was good for his confidence because he’s been a little snake-bitten, and Duby the same way.
“Artie has played two really good games after struggling. He played head-up on Backstrom and did a very good job.
“They are maturing. They are not always going to be dead-on, but they are figuring out how to get themselves out of it quickly.”
Last night, in the third game since their latest reunification, they figured out how to take the Capitals out of it quickly, manufacturing two of the four Rangers goals in the first 11 minutes of the second period.
After Brandon Prust, following determined end board work by Brian Boyle, put a bad-angle 10-footer through Semyon Varlamov to give the Rangers a 1-0 jump at the first-period break, wondrous amounts of space opened in the Washington end.
Anisimov skated up the middle to drill a 35-footer though a screened Varlamov, Gaborik deftly broke down a Marc Staal power-play drive through the goalie’s legs, then Dubinsky lined up another screen after an aimless center-ice Ovechkin turnover.
Staal beautifully finished off a short-handed backhand on a two-on-one with Boyle before Callahan then snapped in a Dubinsky passout and scored unassisted to complete the rout, but not before Dubinsky engaged the frustrated Ovechkin after the Caps’ star had come in legally low on Girardi.
Ovechkin threw down the gloves first to start what coach Bruce Boudreau said he believed was his star’s first fight.
“Right from the get-go we were outworking them,” said Dubinsky. Indeed, practically all of Lundqvist’s strenuous activity was in the third period, long after any clunker goal, like Rick Nash’s winner from the corner in Columbus, could have had any rattling effect.
“It really bothered me last night,” Lundqvist said. “Sometimes when I am upset at myself, I use it as energy the next game.”
The Rangers’ 8-0 record in the second half of back-to-back games is testament to that, but their youth is the predominant reason. Chris Drury has been cleared to return Wednesday in Pittsburgh, but not at the expense of Anisimov.
“We are on the right road with our youth and how we’re approaching it mentally,” said Tortorella. “It’s up to us to stay with it.”
Also up to a coach to stay with a line that could dominate one of the league’s best, but he’ll say that’s up to its members. Last night, Anisimov, Dubinsky and Callahan played like they completely agreed.