You’ve seen this script played out thousands of times—just when things are at their bleakest, the hero swoops in, defeats the bad guys, saves the day and gets the girl.
Hopefully the girl wound up being Marian Gaborik’s current girlfriend as the rest of the script went perfectly for the Slovak and his Ranger teammates last night in a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
Gabby’s hat trick and a solid performance in goal from rookie Chad Johnson filling in for the ailing Henrik Lundqvist snapped a five-game losing streak and truly did save the day, at least temporarily, for the struggling Rangers.
No matter how Rangers coach John Tortorella had been mixing the ingredients, the soup was tasting bitter lately. And with his two main ingredients having lost their flavor of late—as the play of both Gaborik and Lundqvist had been anything but gourmet-level—the head chef was getting restless.
“It’s a little bit of a relief, not that we’ve gotten it all solved, we have a lot to work on, but I’m happy for the players that this takes a little bit of pressure off,” Tortorella said after the victory over Colorado. However, the look on the his face wasn’t drastically different than the one from the night before in Phoenix after a 3-2 loss, which might imply the coach doesn’t have it all solved just yet either.
Well, at least his star winger has taken the Tortorella, Larry Brooks feud is off the back pages…for now. As for the on ice difficulties prior to the win against the Avalanche…read on.
When both Gaborik and Lundqvist were playing consistently well and carrying the team, you had to wonder where they’d be with either one or both out or simply not contributing. Well, the Rangers had officially reached that destination prior to Gaborik’s trick in the Rockies last night and discovered it’s a scary place.
“I don’t have an explanation for it but I know I was not good enough,” said an exasperated Lundqvist after his weak effort in the 5-1 loss to the Canes last Wednesday, his 26th start in the last last 28 games. “The easiest thing to do in a situation like this is look at other people as the reasons. I have to look at myself first. That goes for everybody.”
With Lundqvist feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend, rookie Chad Johnson replaced him against both Phoenix (3-2 loss) and Colorado (3-1 win) and despite the fact he acquitted himself well, the situation cast a spotlight on another problem the Rangers face—finding a suitable back-up for Lundqvist for the final 30 games of the season. While the Olympic break will offer some time off for many NHLers, Lundqvist is expected to take Team Sweden deep into the tournament in what could be a very physically and emotionally draining two weeks for him. Ditto for Gaborik with Slovakia.
The tinkering by Tortorella with the rest of the line-up has reached the point he’s changing line combinations by the period these days. The Dubinsky-Drury-Christensen combo on Saturday should have been dubbed the “WTF” line as it appeared the coach was simply playing the slots at Atlantic City in the hopes of a cash out. They are now 26th overall in offense and the four teams below them for goal scoring ineptitude have all played less games. Gaborik’s 33 goals now represent roughly 22 percent of their total.
On the blue line, there’s been trouble brewing all season but Lundqvist had been consistently bailing them out. Now that The King has slumped, the weaknesses are glaring.
Not to pick on the impressive 19-year-old, but what has happened to Michael Del Zotto’s game? A nightmarish first period in Phoenix represented the low-water mark thus far in a season that has seen the rookie’s play slowly but steadily decline from what had been a spectacular start. All three goals the Coyotes scored in the first Saturday in Phoenix were a direct result of Del Zotto misplays—failing to take body on the first, a badly-timed pinch on the second and just simply getting out worked in the corner on the third. Things didn’t get much better in Colorado as the kid was benched for all but a 1:50 in the third.
While Del Zotto’s team-leading -18 is troubling, as a teenage defenseman in the NHL the kid was bound to experience ups and downs in his first season and he’s certainly not the only guilty party of the Rangers’ blue line corps. Wade Redden continues to play as though lost in some kind of thick fog in his own end and Del Zotto’s defensive partner (in crime), Dan Girardi, is also struggling. Matt Gilroy has been involved in several trade rumors of late, the most recent being a trip to Calgary with Ales Kotalik for Olli Jokinen.
With regard to Redden, whom Tortorella has now benched a few times, most recently for the final 37:55 in the 5-1 loss to Carolina last Wednesday, there appears to be no answer. He’s been called out by the coach on several occasions yet his play remains, at best, indifferent and the six-year, $39 million contract makes him an immovable object on the trade front as well.
The recent deal the Maple Leafs struck for all-star defenseman Dion Phaneuf has to have Rangers fans lighting up the blogosphere. The deal was costly for Toronto as they had to surrender solid defenseman Ian White along with two of their three top goal scorers in Niklas Hagman (20) and Matt Stajan (16) but in Phaneuf they land one of the league’s few monsters on the backline and a player they can truly build something around.
In looking over the Rangers roster you have to be left feeling they could have put together a similar package without including Dubinsky, Callahan or Del Zotto.
While the win in Denver stops the bleeding a bit, this may still be a slightly different team when the plane lands in LA for Tuesday night’s game. The one thing we know for sure is Marian Gaborik will be on it, cape in tow no doubt.
ICE CHIPS
Lots of trade rumors swirling around the Rangers over the weekend with the loudest being the aforementioned Kotalik/Gilroy for Jokinen deal. Other names being bandied about include the Wild’s Andrew Brunette, Detroit’s Todd Bertuzzi, Nashville’s Ryan Suter, Tampa’s Vinny Lecavalier, Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalcuk, the Caps’ Alex Semin and Philly’s Jeff Carter with other Rangers who might be sent packing being Christopher Higgins, Chris Drury, Michal Rozsival and Vinny Prospal. Stay tuned.
Last game of this trip is in LA tomorrow night and the Rangers have a chance to make it a successful one as the Kings will be returning from a long (and very successful) road trip. For LA it’s the dreaded first-game-back-from-a-long-trip syndrome. After that it’s home cookin’, which hasn’t tasted so good of late, for three straight as the Caps (Feb. 4), Devils (Feb. 6) and Predators (Feb. 10) come calling.