This was the first of his four games behind the bench that John Tortorella hadn’t much liked what he’d seen through 40 minutes, even if his team held a 2-1 lead.
And so the head coach let the Rangers know about it during the second intermission in the same constructive manner with which he’s communicated with his players since getting the job 11 days ago.
“The way he talks to us, you feel confidence because he gives confidence,” Henrik Lundqvist said after the Rangers’ 4-2 Coliseum victory over the Islanders that marked the team’s first two-game winning streak since Jan. 27.
“He was honest with us when he came into the room. He said we hadn’t played our best hockey, but that now it was time to pick up our game and get the win because that’s what good teams do.”
After controlling the puck for most of their first three games under Tortorella, the Blueshirts spent an inordinate amount of time chasing it and the Islanders around the ice through the first two periods. If not for Lundqvist’s brilliance early in making point-blank stops against Andy Hilbert and Kyle Okposo, the Rangers would have been chasing the Islanders on the scoreboard, too.
Perhaps the disorganization could be pinned on trying to incorporate Sean Avery, Nik Antropov and Derek Morris into the lineup, or perhaps the Islanders’ attack game deserves credit for the disruption, but either way, the Rangers weren’t all that much.
“We looked a little sluggish and I don’t think we generated a lot on the forecheck,” Tortorella said. “It’s never going to be perfect, but the teams that are going to be there at the end win these games, they don’t lose them.”
Avery kept it simple in 13:56 of ice his first NHL game since Nov. 30, delivering several checks and going hard to the net while playing on a line with Lauri Korpikoski and Ryan Callahan. The Notorious No. 16 probably took a bit more than he gave out, targeted a couple of times in vulnerable positions along the boards by Trent Hunter, perhaps a distant relative of Dion Phaneuf or Gary Bettman.
“I feel a comfort level wearing that [Rangers] jersey, that’s for sure,” said Avery, who responded to the question of how he assessed his first game back by saying, “I’ll assess it by the two points.”
After routing the Avalanche 6-1 on Saturday, the Blueshirts have recorded as many as 10 goals in consecutive games for the first time this season. After going 2-for-5 on the power play to mark the first game in which they got at least two on the PP since Jan. 20, the Rangers are 4-for-17 on the man advantage under Tortorella.
“He’s got us thinking a certain way,” said Scott Gomez, who converted a nifty two-on-one feed from Nikolai Zherdev early in the third and displayed zip throughout. “If you want to play, you have to play his way, or else you’ll be watching.”
The big guns scored, just the way they have to in order for the Rangers to succeed. Gomez got one, so did Zherdev and so did Chris Drury and Markus Naslund, the latter two on the power play, with Naslund scoring off an Islander skate on a 50-foot shot on which he snapped his stick in two.
“First time for everything,” said Naslund.
Second time for Avery, with whom the Rangers are 1-0 this year.
Rangers 4 Islanders 2