No Rangers shooter has hit a top corner seemingly in months. So damn the potential catastrophic consequences; John Tortorella doesn’t want his team to stop trying.
If Henrik Lundqvist takes one in the collarbone during practice like Marty Biron did on trade deadline day, the Rangers’ playoff hopes take one in the solar plexus. Chad Johnson, the backup to the backup, has played five NHL games.
But Tortorella was aiming higher than just eighth place, rather toward games in May, when he endorsed last summer’s signing of a goalie who could afford Lundqvist a day off a week. So the Rangers coach has enforced no taboo against his shooters aiming high in drills.
“Nope, we’re trying to score goals,” said Tortorella. “You need to practice hard.
“We give them enough [garbage] about scoring goals that they are going to try to score goals.”
Last night, either all that practice or the Rangers’ first-round goaltending bust, Al Montoya, chased after two periods from the Islanders’ net, paid off. Before, during and after the 6-3 Rangers victory, Tortorella refused to fret over any potential waste caused by a shot above Lundqvist’s waist.
To culminate two shifts of brain-lock by Brandon Dubinsky, PA Parenteau was close enough to Lundqvist to give him the flu as he redirected John Tavares’ feed to erase what only 1:40 earlier had been a 2-0 Rangers lead. But eight minutes later, Ryan Callahan burst the Isles’ bubble and besides, what’s Tortorella going to do, put his goalie in a bubble?
Following up a game-saving third period in San Jose Saturday with another in last night’s first period, Lundqvist appears finally to be hanging his own Do Not Disturb sign from his goal.
While Montoya was helping the Rangers to a two-goal lead, the Islanders were getting the better chances. The King did the splits to rob Kyle Okposo with his glove, beat Michael Grabner on a quick turnaround in the slot and Matt Moulson off a pass-out, making the kind of game-turning stops without which this stretch drive will fail.
In his 14th straight start, the King looked fresh as a daisy, perhaps getting into the sustained zone he hasn’t found this season. This would be a good time for it, you think?
“That’s my goal,” he said. “I don’t have an excuse for getting tired.
“The schedule has been great lately, a game then a couple days off. It helps when you’re winning. You lose, you get stuck on some things in your game.”
The Rangers have won four of five over 12 days, good work if a goalie can get it, even if he is Karl Wallenda walking a tightrope to the playoffs without a net below.
“The schedule (only two back-to-backs remain) is good for us, and so was the rest he had earlier,” Tortorella said. “He will play under 70 (actually a maximum 68), what we were looking for.
“He’s feeling pretty good about himself now. So we’ll go with him and see what happens.”
And if the worst happens?
“It’s not an ideal situation to put a guy in, where we are right now but [Johnson] has practiced well, so if push comes to shove he plays,” said Tortorella.
One presumes that if pushing for the playoffs comes to shoving Lundqvist during practice, the coach will put his foot down. But even Marian Gaborik found the net again last night — twice — so maybe all those high hard ones the Gang Having Trouble Shooting Straight has been whizzing past The King’s crown in practice are starting to pay off.