There’s no question that the NHL in the post-lockout era is a far cry from the rough and tumble game of yesteryear. The emphasis today is clearly on skill and skating, but the Ice Capades this is not. At the end of the day, NHL hockey is still a tough, physical game.
With roughly 30 games to go in the 2009-10 season the intensity level most nights is on the rise as playoff spots are up for grabs in a tightly bunched Eastern Conference. Points are precious this time of year and while you still have to put the biscuit in the basket to win games, sometimes you’ve got to match your opponents’ toughness as well. As much as the league might deny this fact, intimidation is still an important element in winning and losing games in the NHL.
It certainly was this past Thursday night as the Rangers lost to the Flyers 2-0 in a game whose story line was dominated by a post-game confrontation between Rangers head coach John Tortorella and longtime New York Post hockey writer Larry Brooks. Brooks attempted to question the coach as to why no Ranger jumped into the fray during Daniel Carcillo’s pummeling of the team’s meal ticket, Marion Gaborik. A clearly agitated Tortorella cut Brooks off, alluding to a recent piece he did for the Post poking fun of Wade Redden’s fight against Montreal a couple of games earlier.
Dan Girardi, who had the best view of Carcillo’s pounding of Gaborik as he watched the lopsided bout from a few feet away, was at least honest, if a bit indecisive, after the game when he said, “I guess I was overthinking it. I didn’t want to take another penalty, because I knew we already had one there (on Brandon Dubinsky), but I should have gotten involved. I should have jumped in. Maybe it was the wrong decision, but it was the decision I made at the time. If there’s a next time, I would go.”
Okay, nice to know, but if you’re Gaborik the gesture might feel a bit hollow. Post-lockout, pre-lockout, 100 years from now—when you’re best player is being manhandled by another team’s hit man, you don’t think about it, you just jump in.
The bigger problem is the fact that this kind of thing has actually been happening to the Rangers all year. Lundqvist has been run into by opposing forwards so many times he looks like a rodeo clown, and no one responded when Curtis Glencross took a run at Chris Drury in Calgary back in November, putting him on the shelf for a few weeks with a concussion.
Brooks’ point in the column attacking Redden was this: When Wade Redden is your “go to” tough guy on defense, you’re in big trouble. Tortorella’s refusal to answer Brooks’ question about the lack of a response to the Gaborik pounding had nothing to do with the column on Redden and everything to do with the fact he was probably asking himself the same question.
The popular excuse the Rangers are tossing around in the aftermath is that the coach didn’t want to call out Girardi in front of the media. Interesting when you consider the fact Tortorella has used the media to do exactly that all season.
The team’s response a couple of nights later in Montreal didn’t exactly put this issue to rest as they were pasted by the Habs 6-0 (their fourth goose egg in the last seven games). So now add the fact that they can’t score again to their bag of problems after the two-game, 14-goal binge earlier in the week.
The trade winds are blowing all over the Garden as the March 3 deadline looms just after the Olympic break. Dion Phaneuf, Vinny Lecavalier, Ilya Kovalchuk, are among the many names being bandied about.
However, watching this team through the first 50-plus games, despite the offensive coma they’ve been in, you sense the talent up front is there to correct that issue. With regard to the topic of team toughness, that’s not as apparent with this roster. And when the head coach challenges old hockey columnists during post-game press conferences, it doesn’t exactly represent a rallying cry for his club.
Maybe the other writers should have jumped in instead of standing around watching Tortorella’s verbal attack on Brooks. Given a second chance, Girardi might have.
ICE CHIPS
Funny side note in the Brooks/Torts feud, one that actually goes back a few years now—when Torts said he wouldn’t answer any of Brooks’ questions, the columnist responded, “Fine, I’ll speculate.” Huh? Thought that’s what Brooks has essentially been doing for more than 30 years now.
Interesting to see that Donald Brashear had a lot to say about the Carcillo/Gabby mismatch, explaining that the incident never would have happened had he been in the lineup. Brashear added that he didn’t feel Carcillo was, “even in my league.” The way the season has gone thus far for Brashear we’re not sure he’d stack up well versus Daniel Briere, let alone Daniel Carcillo.
Regarding the Rangers’ struggles offensively—their 135 goals scored places them 25th in the NHL, only eight goals ahead of 30th place Boston. However, they are only 10 goals behind Minnesota’s 145 goals for 13th in the league. The point? Lots of teams are having trouble scoring. The days leading up to the March 3 trade deadline should be interesting.
Two more at home—the Pens tonight and the Canes on Wednesday—followed by a big three-game west coast trip that begins in Phoenix on Jan. 30, Colorado on the 31st and ends in LA next Tuesday, Feb. 2.