FEELING BLUE: Rangers coach John Tortorella looks on from the bench in the final minutes of yesterday’s loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals. (Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post)
BOSTON — Sitting on a chair on a black dais in an echoic black room with black cardboard walls, John Tortorella raised his right hand and motioned towards his chest.
The season had just ended with Tortorella’s Rangers losing 3-1 to the Bruins in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in TD Garden, a moment when all the high expectations suddenly came crumbling down like a waterfall of disappointment.
“Some of the responsibility falls on me,” the Rangers coach said, not as somber as he was defiant. “One of the big things of this series, I could not — it does, it falls on me — it’s a big part of my job is to get your top players to play consistently, and I couldn’t do that.
“We tried, so I need to take some responsibility to try and get them in those spots to help us here. I thought that hurt us.”
The first place to look now is at Rick Nash, the superstar winger that was supposed to be the missing piece to get the Blueshirts over the hump and past the stage of the conference finals where last season ended. But Nash was held in check for all 12 playoff games, scoring just once and struggling to create the offense this defense-first Rangers team so desperately needed.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Nash said. “We have a good team, good season, and we just couldn’t get the job done.”
What was made so apparent not just in this series, but throughout this lockout-shortened season, is the Rangers are team that lacked depth, scoring and often the necessary snarl.
In the wake of Nash’s disappointment, don’t forget former Conn Smythe winner Brad Richards, who had played himself into the role of a healthy scratch and watched the final two games of the season from the rafters.
“I don’t compare it to last year,” Tortorella said. “Because you go to the conference finals, everybody thinks the next step is the Stanley Cup finals, and we’re a different team. You may not like it, you may think it’s an excuse, but we’re a different team.”
They certainly are, because last year the Rangers modernized the template of what it is to be a bruising, hard-nosed team that wins games more with resolve than skill. Yet that was exactly how the Bruins it took it to them, thoroughly outmuscling, outsmarting and outplaying the Rangers almost entirely from the drop of the puck in Game 1 until the horn sounded here last night, yellow towels waving brightly as the Bruins head to Pittsburgh to start the conference finals with the top-seeded Penguins.
“They did so many things really well, they’re a great team,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, again doing everything in his power to keep his team in it with 29 saves. “I’m just really disappointed right now. It’s an empty feeling.”
The bit of hope the Rangers got in this series was on Thursday, when Boston goalie Tuukka Rask fell on his butt and began the Rangers’ run to a 4-3 overtime win. That energy continued in the first period yesterday, when midway through the Rangers staked themselves to a 1-0 lead on a Dan Girardi power-play goal.
“That could have been the period of the series in the first,” Girardi said. “We tried to keep it in the second, but we obviously didn’t.”
No, the second was when rookie defenseman Torey Krug scored his fourth goal of the series and Gregory Campbell added his first of two, the final one into the empty net in the waning seconds as one last grain of salt on the wound.
“It sucks,” said captain Ryan Callahan, who midway through the third had a golden opportunity to tie it on a breakaway only to be denied by Rask. “There’s no worse feeling than this. We had a good team this year. It’s frustrating.”
So it’s over, and as there always is at this point, there are more questions than answers. Soon Tortorella will speak to each player individually and evaluate the season and how to move forward. But for now, it’s nothing but the sting of defeat.
“I expected more from us,” Lundqvist said, his voice soft and tender as he, his coach, and his team sulk off into the summer.
bcyrgalis@nypost.com