You can bet that John Tortorella never told Jim Dolan, “I can’t say we definitely want [a Brad Richards-Marian Gaborik combination] to happen,” when lobbying the Garden CEO in May and June to invest $60 million over nine years to sign the blue-chip free agent center specifically to combine him with the two-year Rangers sniper who struggled last year without an elite playmaker.
Yet that’s exactly what the coach told the press yesterday after a practice in preparation for this afternoon’s Garden match against the Senators featured Gaborik skating with Erik Christensen as his center — and isn’t this where the summer started? — while Richards played between Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan.
Tortorella engaged in a fascinating soliloquy worthy of Hamlet (“To Do or Not To Do”) in debating aloud with himself the wisdom of the constant line shuffling that has marked the first three weeks of this 3-3-2 season. But it was stunning to hear the coach suggest he is not necessarily convinced Richards-Gaborik represents the Rangers’ manifest destiny, even if it’s possible there was an ulterior motive for it.
“I can’t say we definitely want that to happen,” he said. “It looks great on paper, and the signing, but tapes talk to me and watching guys play, that talks to me, and that’s what I’m deciphering now.
“You can’t get glued to one situation. You have to worry about the whole situation, what’s best for the team, winning a hockey game and playing the way we have to play.”
There may, however, be more of a method to the madness of separating Richards and Gaborik than the coach wishes to volunteer, and it is madness to believe Christensen is the answer up top after the Rangers identified their most important offseason need as signing Richards to supplant him in that spot, not to replace Artem Anisimov between Dubinsky and Callahan.
It just might be that Tortorella is attempting to build up Richards’ game by using him between Callahan and Dubinsky before re-uniting No. 19 with Gaborik because the coach sees diminishing returns in trying to coax the best out of that combination while Richards is so far off his own game, as he is and readily admits.
“I’m not seeing the game the way I should be, and when that’s the case and things feel they’re moving quicker than they should, sometimes getting me to grind it out is the best way to get me going, and Torts knows that,” Richards told The Post. “Playing with Cally and Dubi, working down low and having zone time, I believe that will be good for me and good for the team.
“Things have been clogged up for me a little bit. I came here wanting to make an impression, but I’ve struggled and things have started to snowball a little bit. I don’t think I’m far away, but I have to be able to contribute and this could be best right now.
“Gabby and I need time together [to improve], but I can learn about Gabby by watching him and seeing him from a different angle,” Richards said. “But whether I’m with Gabby or not, I have to get my game going.”