There have been two straight losses for the Rangers, and their power play is flailing. Maybe with that in mind, Tom Renney wouldn’t guarantee that his player combinations and lineups would stay the same tonight.
“I’m not sure yet,” the Rangers’ head coach said yesterday when asked whether he anticipates any power play or line changes tonight against the Lightning (7:00; MSG, ESPN-radio, 1050 AM).
“That’s not a good answer I’m sure, but I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet. I’m comfortable with what we have for personnel, as a team, no question about it. And I believe very strongly in these guys.
“And whatever the combinations are, I honestly think they’ll work, whether it’s a penalty-killing pair, whether it’s a 5-on-5 issue, whether it’s power play.”
That certainly might mean no changes, as it’s possible Renney simply didn’t want to reveal his hand. But Renney did say that since he’s in charge he has “the time-on-ice chip to play.”
Of course, he also insisted he’s “a patient man.”
“We’ve had reasonable success in the three years so far,” he said. “We want to go deeper. We want to win it all. How I choose to grow this team … is a work in progress.”
Renney also said he planned to have a meeting with right wing Nikolai Zherdev’s line yesterday and with “him in particular. ‘Cause he’s high-end skill.” Renney said he wants Zherdev “to be an attacking player with speed as much as anything else.”
As for the power play, the Rangers are just 10-for-74 on it, and Markus Naslund admitted “it’s a little bit tense.”