In the Department of What Have You Done For Us Lately?, the answer was “squat” when it came to the Rangers’ leading men up front in last night’s 3-0 loss to the Senators at Madison Square Garden.
“Our grinders and role players played well, but we got squat out of our top guys,” coach John Tortorella said after his club’s winning streak was stopped at five games by impressive Ottawa. “Brian Boyle’s line [with Ruslan Fedotenko and Carl Hagelin] was really good, but the problem is, that can’t be our top line … that can’t be our top line.”
Asked whether he found fault with the execution or the effort of the featured group that included Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik, Derek Stepan, Artem Anisimov and, by association, Ryan Callahan, the coach responded, “Both.”
Brandon Dubinsky was sidelined with a sore shoulder, replaced in the lineup by Wojtek Wolski, who in his first game since Nov. 3 opened with Richards and Callahan before the coach began juggling his personnel through a second period in which the Senators began to dictate.
Tortorella broke up the Anisimov-Stepan-Gaborik unit that has essentially been intact since the combination was formed on Nov. 5 in the club’s 12th game of the season. That span of 29 matches (minus one that Anisimov missed because of illness) probably represents a career record of stability for this coach.
But the unit that carried the club offensively through December has gone stale since the turn of the year. So has Anisimov, who sat for the final 8:23 of the second period then played with several different sets of linemates in the third while Callahan joined Stepan and Gaborik.
“Everything [has been missing] from Artie’s game the past few games,” Tortorella said of Anisimov, who has one point (0-1) in his past 10. “It’s not all on Artie’s shoulders, but that line has dried up a little bit.”
Stepan had four shots, including a glorious opportunity from the high slot 7:30 into the third period with the Rangers down 1-0. But he was denied by Craig Anderson, who was terrific, challenging shooters throughout a 34-save performance during which he was the best goaltender on the ice.
Gaborik was held without a shot for the third time this season, which reached the halfway point with the defeat that dropped the Rangers to 27-10-4.
“I didn’t expect to win the rest of our games,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, whose personal seven-game winning streak ended. “Losses will come, but the important thing is to deal with it right away when it happens.”
“There’s frustration in not burying our chances,” said Callahan, a staple on the power play that went 0-for-4 and is 1-for-20 over the past eight matches and 3-for-38 over the past 14. “More disappointing is that we let them take the momentum in the second period and didn’t grab it back.”
For all the Rangers’ comparative woes, it was only 1-0 against with 6:10 to go on Jason Spezza’s mid second-period left wing rocket when Boyle took Fedotenko’s feed in front and took a shot. The puck, however, glanced off the shaft of Spezza’s stick.
The Senators went the other way and scored on Milan Michalek’s rebound at 13:58 after he beat Fedotenko down the ice.
“That’s the way it’s going for Brian,” Tortorella said of Boyle, who has two goals and has not scored in 22 straight. “Those guys did everything possible, but that line can’t check their top line [as well] as they did and lead the team in scoring chances, too.”