The coach has shuffled more decks this year than there are on all the tables in Vegas, and the Rangers still need a deal to find a true ace center.
John Tortorella can only coach ’em if he’s got ’em. With 28 games and likely at least one round of playoffs to go without a true No. 1, he says it’s also about time Marian Gaborik started looking out for No. 1.
“He’s had a mindset of sometimes trying to make an extra play or wait for people to make an extra play,” Tortorella said before the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the revived Devils at the Garden. “I like to see him determine the play by taking pucks to the net, trying to beat people wide.
“You gain the zone and take bad angle shots, a lot of offense comes off that.”
The Rangers’ goals came from a combined angle of about 40 degrees. They were scored by Vinnie Prospal, who played his first game after almost two-thirds of the season with a right knee injury, and Ryan Callahan, who is two games returned from missing almost a quarter of the season with a broken hand.
They weren’t scored by Gaborik, back since Nov. 11 from a shoulder separation. He contributed only a secondary assist on Prospal’s 5-on-3 goal, leaving the star’s goal total from the past six games at one, his point total at four and his shot total at 14.
The Rangers have played too well in the last three games to have just one point. After Henrik Lundqvist went for six for seven in Tuesday’s 4-3 shootout loss to Pittsburgh, it was a stretch for Tortorella to suggest last night goaltending has been the consistent culprit in this winless streak.
One culprit, however, is Gaborik, the guy who is supposed to be stretching the opposition in the neutral zone, but is not doing it enough.
Tuesday night, Gaborik left the Penguins’ Tyler Kennedy in the dust at center, creating a rebound that Brandon Dubinsky knocked out of the air to Artem Anisimov. Anisimov gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead that had great promise of growing until it didn’t.
The Rangers blew the lead. Last night they almost came back. Whatever. Both times they wound up a goal short, largely because their once-and-hopefully-again star didn’t do enough.
“At times tonight Gabby had some really good battle to him,” Tortorella said. “It needs to be consistent.”
Gaborkik, gone to off-limits places when the media gained locker room entrance, hasn’t been gabby about his struggles. This, however, can be said with certainty: If the idea of a Rangers playoff run is to have any legs, Gaborik has to better use his.
Any chance of the Rangers being a strong Stanley Cup contender pivots on getting a true No. 1 pivot, because Gaborik, at his best, can come from behind the play as well as lead it. But today, he still is sitting on 16 goals, 10 of which have been scored in three games against three of the NHL’s worst teams, the Islanders, Oilers and Leafs.
The give-and-go on the Rangers’ No. 1 line largely has gotten up and left. Thus the returning Prospal instantly was put on a line with Gaborik and rookie Derek Stepan, largely because Prospal scored 58 points in 75 games last season in helping Gaborik score 42 goals in 76.
“I don’t try to be a genius,” Tortorella said. “[I] want to see if it can work.”
He has tried everything to get Gaborik going, making it painfully clear the team’s best player has to do that for himself.