With the rival Philadelphia
Flyers looming tomorrow afternoon the New York Rangers are talking a very
confident game today despite the current two game skid. The level of confidence in who they are and
the way they play is something that is necessary at this point of the
year. However the key is not whether
they say the right things, but that they truly believe what they are saying.
One of the key quotes put out
from coach John Tortorella via Rangers
official twitter feed was the following…
"We're going to respond the
right way...we know who we are...now we need to be who we are"
There is no better way to phrase
what the Rangers need right now than that.
This team has spent an entire season attempting to form an identity and
when they play to that identity they can have success. When they lose track of who they are and how
they are successful, then they predictably struggle. A Rangers squad that does not forecheck, does
not cycle the puck and does not maintain puck possession is one that does not
generate offense. A Rangers team that
does not cover in the defensive zone, does not sacrifice the body to block
shots and does not clear the puck when they have the chance is one that
struggles defensively. Most importantly
a Rangers squad that does not outwork its opponent on a nightly basis and show
how badly they want to win that night will not win because they do not have the
talent to get through it will less than their top effort against a team like
Philadelphia.
In an attempt to spark the
struggling offense Tortorella has changed the lines and moved Brandon Prust up with
Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov. The
corresponding move was to take Ryan Callahan off that line and put him with
Brian Boyle and Ruslan Fedotenko. I don’t
really like the move as it was done, but in trying to keep the Gaborik line
together I presume this was the easiest of the changes to make in the lineup
since the fourth line was pretty locked in as it will be. If there is a struggle offensively early I
would expect changes to those lines anyway so no need to get overly excited or
upset about them.
Lines:
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Prust
Prospal-Stepan-Gaborik
Fedotenko-Boyle-Callahan
Avery-Christensen-Wolski
