Apparently Enver Lisin isn’t the problem.
After dressing the Moscow-born winger for the game in Pittsburgh Saturday night but keeping his derriere glued to the bench the entire game, the Rangers were bombed by the Pens 8-3.
You see, Lisin had been blasted by coach John Tortorella earlier in the week for “covering air” on a goal by Tampa Bay’s Steve Stamkos in an embarrassing 5-1 loss. You might also recall that Tortorella suggested Lisin spends time during shifts “picking his nose”—yet another candid reference to the forwards’ lack of attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck.
Well, after two of the worst defensive efforts of season this week in blowout losses to the Pens and Lightning, it’s safe to assume that there might be several other “nose-pickers” and “air-coverers” outside of Lisin on this roster.
Ottawa Senators goaltender Brian Elliott (30) looks on as New York Rangers' Enver Lisin (81) attempts to shoot the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Ottawa Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Fred Chartrand)
After a solid effort against the Panthers in Florida last Wednesday in a 2-1 shootout win, the Rangers apparently felt their defensive work for the week was done. While the debacle in Pittsburg looked worse on the scoreboard, the complete non-effort in Tampa on Friday night, in a game you know Tortorella was fired up for, was a real head scratcher.
“The good things is we’re making correctable mistakes,” explained Tortorella after the mess in Tampa.
That was the coach’s take before the media began asking for a more detailed explanation after such a no-show effort. An increasingly agitated Tortorella added, “I’m not going to dissect the game tonight because we were outplayed and we need to push this one right out of our minds. We stunk tonight! It was an embarrassing loss! Let’s leave it at that, okay guys.”
The combustible coach was even more fired up after the blowout loss in Pittsburgh but chose to aim his post game tirade at the officials instead. A nasty elbow thrown to the head of Artem Anisimov by Pens’ winger Matt Cooke late in the game ignited a bit of a melee along with usually long fuse of Ranger players.
“He leaves his feet, it’s an absolute head shot, the linesman jumps in when somebody else is trying to take care of business, that should have been left alone,” Tortorella said. “This is where our game is screwed up as far as I’m concerned. There is just no respect for these types of situations.”
The fact the incident seemed to light a fire under his club would have to be looked at as a positive as the Rangers have not responded physically when they’ve been run at thus far this season. Henrik Lundqvist has been run over several times without retribution and the head high hit in Calgary by Curtis Glencross that resulted in Chris Drury’s concussion essentially went unpunished as well.
Tortorella’s post-game explanation on the Drury hit was,” it was early and there was a game to win.” It’s early in the season as well and there are lots of games still to win, but allowing the message to get around the league that your club is soft is something Tortorella might want to nip in the bud real soon—perhaps as early as tonight in a return match with the Penguins.
With two-thirds of the season still to play, fingers should be kept off the panic button. However, one thing that does appear to need addressing is the fact this roster, that GM Glen Sather did some major work on in the off season, seems to be loaded with a lot of one-dimensional players up front that apparently either can’t seem to find a second gear to switch into when the Rangers fall behind or worse, simply don’t have one.
“The locker room, sooner or later, has to take ownership of this. Every individual in there has to take ownership of how we’re going to play,” was the coach’s postmortem on a lost weekend.
After the magical Marion Gaborik and the resurrection of Vinny Prospal there isn’t much happening up front. And if the coach is going to continue take it out on the “air-covering, nose-picking” Lisin, he might soon be accused of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
ICE CHIPS
With three more goals from defensemen on Saturday (Staal, Rozsival and Gilroy) Rangers defensemen now have 18 goals this season, tied for second in the NHL…and the way the forwards are going, they’ll need a lot more.
Retribution on the Cooke hit might have to wait until mid-January when the Rangers are back in Pittsburgh, as word out of Canada late yesterday was that the league has officially suspended Cooke two games for the hit on Anisimov.
Saturday’s game against the Pens was Michael Del Zotto’s first really bad night in the NHL thus far. The 19-year-old rookie was a -5 on the night and was simply out of position on a few of the goals. It will interesting to see how the kid responds in the rematch tonight.
Bobby Sanguinetti has acquitted himself well in replacing the injured Wade Redden the last two games. The 21-year-old New Jersey native has somehow managed an even rating in two lopsided losses averaging just over 13 minutes of ice time.
After hosting the Pens tonight, the Rangers don’t play again until Saturday night in Buffalo. They are back home for the Red Wings on Sunday.
