Rangers 3, Devils 2: Postgame wrapup

No surprise, but coach John Tortorella absolutely ripped into his team when he took a timeout at 1:24 of the first period. The Rangers' defensive work in their end up to that point was, at best, abysmal, at worst, apathetic. Seriously, the Rangers were very flat and stood there watching the Devils pass the puck, go into the corners, retrieve the puck and head back toward the Rangers net.

"It was very obvious," Gilroy said of what Tortorella said. "Anything you guys could think of, he probably said."

The stern, ahem, lecture obviously worked because even though the first period remained, for the most part, the opposite of a defensive masterpiece, the Rangers were good, for the most part, in their own end the rest of the game. Tortorella was happy to announce the Devils were held to 10 scoring chances after the Rangers had given up in the teens to their first two opponents.
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Tortorella was also pretty happy to see the Rangers win this type of game. The last two periods were definitely grind-it-out periods and the Rangers didn't get to play the way Tortorella prefers, which is speedy transitions and pushing the puck up the ice as a result.

"It's a great point (The Post's Larry Brooks asked the question so credit where credit is due)," Tortorella said. "It's tough not to play their style of game, they play it so well. It's tough to get open ice, it's tough to get through the neutral zone clean with the puck. Early on, it's important to win a game like this. I was really encouraged in the third period, everybody chipped in (Tortorella, in particular, praised the fourth line of Donald Brashear-Brian Boyle-Aaron Voros). It's very important to find a way to win this type of game early."

Little was said of Henrik Lundqvist's performance, what with the two rookie defensemen both scoring goals and sort of becoming the main topic in the Rangers' room after the game, at least from a media standpoint. Personally, I thought Lundqvist was outstanding in making 25 saves. He's playing very square to the puck and he's not allowing rebounds.

Ales Kotalik has been somewhat frustrated with a lack of ice time - he logged 11:30 against the Devils after getting 13:36 against the Penguins and 14:58 against the Senators. But Kotalik is not a top six forward for this team and Tortorella's philosophy is to keep his best players on the ice as much as he can. Kotalik himself recognizes that playing with Artem Anisimov, 21, and Enver Lisin, 23, on the third line will probably keep his ice time down anyway. He said he just needed to stay focused and be professional about it.

"He was more engaged (tonight)," Tortorella said. "He made a great play at the end of the game and he scores a big goal. He hit the net. In the first two games he's had opportunities but he missed the net. We're going to have to ask for more. I think he's going to give us more. I think he's going to be a big part of the hockey club. Him and a few other guys are going through a process here where you have the other two lines are playing a little bit more. I know he wants to play more. I think he eventually will play more. It comes down to what you're doing on the ice and how you earn your ice time."

The Rangers are off tomorrow and will resume practice on Wednesday before leaving for Thursday's game at Washington.

Finally, here are the game note the Rangers sent out: Thanks again for the great comments tonight. I know there's been some back and forth on the posts with maybe some hard feelings. But I appreciate you guys policing yourselves and keeping the comments section constructive. That's what it's there for.

* The Blueshirts defeated Atlantic Division rivals, the New Jersey Devils, 3-2, tonight at the Prudential Center to improve to 2-1-0 overall, including a 1-1-0 mark on the road.
* The Rangers have now won 14 of their last 23 games against the Devils, posting a record of 14-6-3 over the span.
* New York tallied two goals in six power play opportunities; Michael Del Zotto notched the team's first power play goal of the season at 6:31 of the first period, and assisted on Ales Kotalik's power play tally later in the opening frame.
* Rangers defenseman Matt Gilroy tallied his first career NHL point with a goal, the game winner, at 17:50 of the second period; he also registered a game-high, six shots on net.
* Marian Gaborik recorded an assist on the game-winning goal to extend his scoring streak to three games, registering two goals and four points during the stretch.
* Ales Kotalik registered his first point as a Ranger with an assist on Del Zotto's first period power play goal, and then added his first goal as a Ranger on the power play at 16:23 of the first.
* Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves, including 21 consecutive saves to end the game, en route to recording his second straight win.
* Vinny Prospal finished with two assists and logged 20:42 of icetime.
* Defenseman Dan Girardi blocked a game-high, four shots and delivered three hits in 20:28 of icetime.
* Rangers Alternate Captain Ryan Callahan collected an assist on Kotalik's first period power play goal.

Comments

[LI Joe]

andrew - can you please ask torts re possible schedule re valley in net at least through oct. i know feb and april are like 1/2 mos but not really for henrik with olympics and hopefully playoffs filling the blank part. so say 7 mos in season and 2 times per month gives valley 14 games.

i think either oct 11 or 12 will be 1 for valley maybe the 11th since its a western team. and maybe the phoenix game or minn game near end of month.

[bob]

"It's not a good thing when they score a goal. I thought maybe I would get two (minutes)," Oduya said. "I didn't think that much. Come across, get a hit like that low on your knee. I know how it feels."

Drury said he had no problem with Oduya's reaction.

"That is a teammate of his and he probably saw it differently," Drury said. "If that was our guy, I would expect the same."

notice how he did not say that HE would do the same. Captain wuss strikes again.

[Jess]

I agree with LI Joe, Andrew you said this team was a 6-8 seed but if Henrik plays his typical 70+ games AND plays in the Olympics then he will run out of gas in March.

Tortorella has a rep about riding his key players with a ton of ice time but you can not do that when the season schedule is as condensed as this one is.

If Vally can not give you more than 12-15 games then get someone who can give you 20-25.

[LI Joe]

andrew - acouple of more thoughts that just crossed my mind

1) do you think the team will get leetch to speak to the rookie dmen on his experiences 1st couple of yrs - or is it mainly a bit from schoeny and sullivan. mainly from perspective on when to go and when to be a little safer

2) when do you expect they'll bring in the 7th dmen. and until then will team sit out a designated hartford guy in a hartford game when the rangers play back to back in case the rangers get an injury to a dman. example if rangers play sat and sun the pack sit out a guy sat night so he does not also get hurt and is rested and ready to play if need be.

[Keith]

JESS-good point-I have been saying that as well. I think they should play Vally 20-25 games to let Hank rest-and maybe even more because of the Olympics. Obviously the team will have to adjust their style and tighten up a bit. I also do not like the whining already by Kotalik about playing time. It's three games in guy-come on. And BOB-give me a break dude-you are reading in to Drury's comments. I ask you all again though-does anyone think that hit by Drury was intentional? I can't decide for myself on that-it didn't look intentional to me

[ntb]

Keith, I haven't seen a ton of replays, but I didn't think the hit was intentional. I looked like Drury was coming in, Martin side-stepped him just enough and Drury stuck out the leg--more instinctual than pre-meditated. I will say, I was shocked Johnny O got 4 minutes--pretty bad call if you ask me. It should have been even-up.

[Charles]

I don't want to see Vally play more than 15 games ... without a majority of them being in the first half of the season, but in the second half around Olympic time. The more I think of it, Torts system that is, the more I worry about how well Vally will handle his games.

Regarding Drury, I don't think the hit was intentional, but it looked ambiguous --- given his track record, I would err on the side of calling it unintentional. Three ways to look at his reaction, either he wussed out, or he was being very cerebral about it all (knowing Oduya would get at least 2 minutes and even things out), or both. I'm thinking it was both.

[CP (Chris)]

Andrew, has anyone asked Torts the question, once we sign a 7th d-man, or decide to use Potter, whether if he will dress 7 defensemen against the faster teams in the league, and in turn, double-shifting guys like Gaborik, Vinny, etc. on the 4th line? I liked the way the 4th line played last night, but I wonder how necessary it will be to have a 7th defenseman in the 3rd period when everyone is gassed, especialy with Gilroy and DZ.

[LI Joe]

i was thinking the same thing re 7 dmen maybe more so on the road where teams can match up as they want against our guys