I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but John Tortorella couldn’t comment on his staff next year, at least where it concerns Mike Sullivan, because of tampering rules. Sullivan, his associate coach in Tampa, is expected to be named Tortorella’s assistant here when his contract expires during the summer.

Here are some player remarks from breakup day. I couldn’t stay for all of them, but got most of the free agents-to-be:

ANTROPOV:

“I didn’t think about it yet, but I will for sure … it was great. It was great. It was perfect for me. I enjoyed it a lot. … It’s not up to me, it’s up to Glen and my agent to discuss, but yeah, this is a great place to play and I’d like to be back.”

“It’s a great city and a great hockey town. The team’s been great and the organization’s awesome.”

DUBINSKY:

(on Tortorella saying his play was on the upswing in the playoffs):

“I felt pretty good, but it’s easy in the playoffs to try and step up your game or play well. There’s so much excitement. It’s what you play for.”

“We’ve just got to find a way to put it together a little better, and I think with Torts coming in next year and having a full year with us, I think it’s going to be good for us and it’s going to be something we look forward to.”

“We definitely had our spurts where we could have used a little more energy (due to conditioning) but I don’t think there’s going to be a lack of that next year. That’s going to be a main focal point.”

GOMEZ:

“I think right from the get-go next year, the start, it’s different now. We know what to expect, we know what is expected of us from Torts, and I think from Day 1 it will be different right away.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Wait ‘til next year’ but you bet we are excited.”

On the conditioning:

“We didn’t have it. There will be a lot of changes over the summer with what Torts expects and what he wants. It’ll be a different workout program for all of us.”

“I’ve got to get back to just creating, back to, the people I play with, make them better. I’ve got to get back to that. … In Torts’ eyes we all have to come back, and it’ll be different, let’s put it that way.”

On speculation he might be moved.

“If there is there is, nothing I can do about it. From Day 1 when I got into the league my name’s always been floating around.”

On Torts’ suspension causing a distraction:

“Not at all. Not at all. Torts is old school and the position we were in (up 3-1) was because of the guy. That doesn’t even have to be brought up. No one even thought that for a split second in this room, that that was a distraction. That’s a guy who’s passionate in what he does, he cares about the team, and it wasn’t any distraction at all.”

Bar being raised:

“Yeah. In his eyes, it’ll be different in a few weeks. It is, and that’s the way it should be.”

On whether there was enough accountability:

“I’m sure there will be a lot more from the start, let’s put it that way. It was one of those years. It was what it was. But I think we all know it will be a lot different here.

“There’s a lot to prove. It was a terrible year, not only with the way the team ended, but personally. … There’s a lot to prove … I’ve always been one of those guys who created and this year I didn’t make the guys I played with better, and that’s always been one of my things. So, you bet, this summer’s going to be different. It has to be because this year was disappointing.”

BETTS:

He rode the bike for 20 minutes, which is the first step from a concussion. No blurry vision. Had mild headaches the first few days. No surgery needed.

He said he had some interesting minutes with doctors immediately after the hit when he couldn’t remember anything.

“It was everything people said it was. In my personal opinion, it was late and it was kind of a blind-sided hit. It came from behind me. His elbows weren’t up. It was straight shoulder. But I just think it was late.

“I just wish a penalty had been called during the game. You don’t really care about the suspension or anything like that. A penalty at that time of the game could have been the difference in that game. But that’s over with now. What can you do?”

On Brashear’s comment that “anyone who knows hockey knows it was a great hit.”:

“I don’t know. It was close to being a great hit. I just think it was a little late. It was a late hit. I didn’t expect it. I was turning toward the bench, looking to change, and I don’t think it was a great hit.

“Obviously I’m upset about it. It took me out of the lineup in a game I would have loved to be playing in, a Game 7 especially. But I’ll get over it. I don’t want to focus on that.”

On his free agency:

“I really have no expectations. I’ve enjoyed my four years here, I’d love to be back, but we’ll see what happens.

“I didn’t expect anybody to give me a hint whether a contact might be offered or anything like that. I think I’ve played hard, I think I’ve played well for them. With the new coaching staff, I think they’re going to have a lot to do with who comes back. If they feel I can be part of this team next year, I’d love to be back. I’ll have to wait and see. It’s going to be a long wait, that’s for sure.”

MARA:

(who shaved his beard but kept a big, bushy moustache he called “a fun thing that will probably be coming off tonight”).

“I love New York, I love playing for the Rangers and this is a place where I want to play for, hopefully, the rest if my career. But we’ll see what happens.”

“I think the feeling of defeat in Game 7 is something you’ll never forget and you never want repeated. So you put that in the memory bank and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“They know where I stand and that I want to be here. … New York is where I want to be and where I want to play.”

He wouldn’t say money’s not important, but “at this point in my career I want to win and they have some building blocks in place to win, so that’s a big factor right now. It would be great to win here in New York.”

MORRIS:

“I wish I had some answers. Obviously New York is a place where had a blast playing. It was a great opportunity, a great group of guys. I hope it works out, but if not it was a nice honor to play here and at least experience a little of it. I think everybody should play some of their career in New York, that’s for sure.

“I think the coach they’ve got here is excellent. I think Glen does a nice job every year of making this team competitive. Whether people believe it or not, this is one of the places everybody wants to play. I definitely want to play here, but I don’t know where it will go.”

CALLAHAN:

“I think with Torts we’re going to have a new system and it’s going to be nice to get everybody used to it right off the bat. I’m really excited about next year.”

“It’s tough. Everybody wants to be playing this time of year and to not be playing right now, it’s hard to come in here and pack your stall up and leave. But at the same time you’ve got to take it as an experience and move forward and use this as ammo next year, to get you ready and get jacked up for another year.”

On restricted free agency:

“It’s kind of out of my control now. I did what I could do during the year and whatever happens happens now. I’m not too worried about it. We’ll see what happens.”
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That’s it from here. Don’t forget to send in your “after” photos of your playoff beards. Details in the early post from this morning below.

Will have player quotes in a bit. For now, you should know that Sean Avery’s injury at the end of Game 7 was just a charley horse. Blair Betts rode a stationary bike today, which is a good sign for a concussion victim. He had some things to say about the hit that caused it and the broken orbital bone.

Tortorella on how much of his style did we see down the stretch.

Long pause.

“I’d like our team to be — and I thought we showed signs of it in Game 7 as far as playing beneath the hashmarks, in behind the net, I thought we did a lot better job in the neutral zone. The style is, it’s having the puck. I just think we need the puck more. You need to take some chances, because I think we have a good enough goaltender that’s going to handle some of the breakdowns. When I first came here we pinched, in the neutral zone especially, and I backed off because I thought we were giving up (too much), I thought our reads weren’t there, I was concerned about the quickness because it’s a lot more difficult to do without the red line … But I still think that’s somethng I want to revisit when we go to camp. It was such a sprint, a two-month sprint: just how much can you give them? So we changed a little bit int he neutral zone and we definitely changed in Game 7, so I want to proceed a little bit more once you have that month (of camp) to really bring in a full team concept.”

How do you get a veteran with a big contract to buy in?

“You’ve got to coach them. It’s such a broad question that it’s tough to answer. But coaches don’t hate their players, and what I’ve learned along the way here is you’re not going to have a perfect team. And practically half your team, as far as a coach, you’re going to be pissed off about. … You need to coach them. We’re going to play under a team concept, one that I think is best fit for what we are, when we start camp and people are going to buy into it. That’s our job, to teach them.”

“Is there conflict along the way? I’ve always said that conflict is not a bad thing. Conflict, there must be some honesty coming out. Those are the things you work through as a coach and a player when you try to teach a veteran guy.”

On the feathers he’s ruffled internally and externally:

“I’m not trying to be an ass. I’m not going to do my job to keep it and make everybody happy. If I try to make everybody happy, I’m not doing my job correctly. I’ve never gone into a situation to try to keep my job. I’m going to do my job the best I can. And will it ruffle some feathers along the way? Yes, it will. And it’s going to continue to do that. But as long as we can do it as men and talk it out, I think relationships can grow strong that way.”

“It’s really not my business how you feel about me. I want to respect you and I want to do the best I can and give the information that I can, but I also have to worry about what is best for the hockey team.” 

On his players in general (I forgot the exact question):

“We’ve got some good guys here. For some guys the standard is going to have to be raised here. That’s my job, to raise the standard, and accountability is going to be a huge thing, holding people accountable. I think as we’ve gone through, they’ve begun to understand me and I’ve begun to understand them. Some of them may not like it, and may not like me. I struggle with some of the effort with some guys, and that’s going to be addressed today as we have our exit meetings. Again, it’s not a business where you want everybody to love you. It just can’t be done that way. … but as long as there’s a mutual respect, and I’m trying to do it respectfully.”

I asked him if the team needs to be in better condition in order to play his style:

“Yes. That starts right now when I meet the first player and describe our camp. Our camp is very heavily-laden, those first five or six days — because we have early  exhibition games and we may stink in those — there’s two days of testing on ice and it’s pretty heavy on conditioning the first five or six days. So that’s something an athlete can control. We put the heavy testing in those first two days because we’re not like football where we can bring them in in the summer and test them. So we need to hang it over their heads, because I don’t think any athlete wants to be embarrassed with the testing that we do, and so we want them to do their work in the summer — not to use camp to get in shape, to be in shape when you come to camp. It’s something you can control, and the way we want to play, the game comes easier to them when you’re in the top shape you can be.

“I’ll put it to you this way. I worry that some guys are tired now and we played one round. We played one round. That’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable. Some guys are tired. And you’re going to be tired, I know that. But you’ve got to be able to get it back every day if we want to do the things we want to do during the playoffs. So that’s what worries me the most, to see guys who are tired after playing 12-13 days and hardly practicing. That worries me.”

On the playoff series:

“I’m not sure how you’ll take it, but the best team won this series. They were a better team than us. That’s not running down our team. I’m just being honest with you. Do you find ways to upset teams? Yeah. When you’re an underdog there are always upsets. We had our opportunity. I felt Hank gave us the opportunity the way he played early in the series. And I will say, I felt Hank was part of the reason we didn’t, too. So he was great, but also struggled at key times, too. I’m not running him down. But I felt at 3-1 we needed to step up offensively and we didn’t and that’s my responsibility, getting it out of them, and it’s the players’ responsibility for not getting it done. Some of them weren’t able to, some of them couldn’t, some of them who I thought had the ability just didn’t.”

Here’s some early stuff from John Tortorella. Can’t put it all up because the lockerroom is opening in a few minutes.

On Game 7 in review:

“I looked at our Game 7 and that’s the way we need to play through the series, I thought. I thought we had more puck control. I thought we did a much better job in the neutral zone. But we fall short where, we have the puck quite a bit in the first two periods, but we still don’t create enough offense. I think we still ended up with probably seven or eight scoring chances in that game. …

“We still didn’t finish. We still didn’t make that last play,and that’s the big problem with our club. We all know that, that we’re an offensively challenged team.”

He said he thought biggest move of the series was the Capitals’ change to Varlamov.

On whether there’s not enough top-end talent, or whether the top-end guys not good enough?

“Both. I don’t want to step out of bounds because i’m not the manager of the club and we’re going to have, in two weeks, meetings regarding this. But I think I can step out and say I don’t think we have it totally as far as within our team, and I don’t think we got it totally from the people within our team.

“This is definitely going to be addressed.”

How much did the Sean Avery/Tortorella distractions around Games 4-5-6 impact the series? Here Tortorella finally copped a mea culpa … big time:

“My thing … it’s a bad mistake by me. I regret it. I think I put the New York Ranger organization in an embarrassing situation. I’m embarrassed by it. I am an intense person, which is a positive, but it also turns into a negative sometimes, and that turned into a negative for us. And I regret it. I didn’t want to talk about it the other day because I didn’t want it to be more of a distraction than it needed to be. Was it a distraction? Of course it was. How much it played into that next game, I don’t know, because I thought we played a good first period and I know I had capable coaches on that bench in Schoney. 

“It can’t happen. It can’t happen. I preach discipline. I preach team concept. I am disciplined and I am a team-concept guy. I stepped out of bounds. I made a huge mistake. I made a huge mistake. Do I have warts? You’re God damned right I do, as all players do. We all make mistakes. But in that situation I am the head coach of the New York Rangers. At the time that that progressed through the game … and I’ll be honest with you, I was protecting my players, at least I felt I was at that point in time, but I did not do it correctly. I stepped way out of bounds.”

He said the referees told him they could have had the fan or fans removed. Tortorella said he had told security to remove the fan, accused him of spitting, and being beligerent. Thought the coach of the team asking security to get rid of him would be enough.

“Hey, listen. I am not backing off. That us my responsibility as a leader of men and a manager of that team at that point in time, that stepped out of bounds. How much it hurt, that’s for you guys to find out. I thought our team played well in teh first period.”

On the Avery benching:

“With Sean Avery, I would do it again. I would sit him out. I think there’s a misperception of how Sean and I get along. We get along great. And we are very honest with one another and we were very honest with one another after that situation. … I would do it again for the short-term and for long-term.

“I felt it was building up to that point, and I know that guy wants to help this team win. He’s not treated fairly in the league as far as on-ice play, some of the things that happen to him on the ice he’s not being treated fairly. He cares. He cares. But it was building up and …. I watched him and I gave him another opportunity (late in Game 4) to be out there and it blew up in my face. It wasn’t, ‘you screwed me, Sean. Me’ I just felt he couldn’t get control at that point in time. I have to look at short-term and also long-term as far as what we’re building as far as accountability. That’s what came into my decison there. And it was my decision. I discussed it with everybody in the organization. Some people didn’t want it to happen, they disagreed with me, but I felt I had to make that decision. That’s my decision.”

If he knows who he wants to stay and go:

“I have a pretty good idea of what’s here now. I don’t know the minor leagues. Jimmy and Glen have been great explaining to me … I don’t even know how to pronounce his name — I call him Artie (Anisimov). I liked the way he played in Game 7. I don’t think he was nervous. It’s a big body. I’m anxious to see him in camp.

“But as far as the people on the roster, I have a pretty good idea — and remember, I’m the coach, I’m not the manager of this team and I dom’t have all the figures as far as cap and what the contracts are — but as a coach I have a pretty good idea of what people are, who I’d like to keep and who I’d like to change.”

“To be honest, I can go through that roster and say, ‘He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone, I want him,’ You can do that as a coach, but it’s not that simple. You have cap problems, you have contracts that are here. Do you have any people that want to trade with you? I’ll go out on a limb and say, ‘Does Glen Sather want to change this team?’ You’re damn right he does. He knows some change needs to be made.”

“Do I envision as a coach what I’d like? Yeah. But it doesn’t happen that way. So that’s why we’re going to have these meetings.”

… more later.

The beard details are in the previous post. Check it out.

I’ve already gotten a whole bunch of “after” beard shots … even without asking. That’s OK. That’s OK.

So the rest of you who entered by sending your “before” shots, now is the time to send in the “afters.”

email them directly to me at rcarpini@lohud.com.

If you haven’t sent befores, don’t send afters … it’s too late. We will let you know how and when to vote for your favorite.

Don’t forget that the winner gets a free beard trim from Sal’s Hair Station in White Plains … or a pack of disposable razors autographed by me (and Jane). I still think that’s what the loser should get. We also might have a couple of prizes to throw in. We’ll see how the contest goes.

I’m going over to breakup day at the practice rink. John Tortorella is scheduled to address the media at 9:30 a.m.—I’m sure that’s to tick off us writers who usually don’t get out of bed by then. I’ll have some player reactions, too, later.

In the meantime, here’s my column from The Journal News and LoHud.com today.

I’m just working on my column for tomorrow, trying to analyze the Rangers’ season, and to me it’s just so simple … I have said it all season long, and especially so since inheriting this blog from Sam Weinman, and I am certainly not even close to being the only one who saw it this way:

The Rangers don’t score enough goals, at even strength or on the power play or ever.

So I was just adding up the damage:

The Rangers played 89 games this year, including playoffs. They scored two goals or fewer in 45 of those. In another five, they were awarded a “third” goal because they won the skills competition at the end of the game. That’s 50 times in 89 games they had two goals or fewer in regulation. 

You can blame some of that on Tom Renney’s defensive system, that it stifled some offense, and that’s fair. But under John Tortorella’s “Safe is Death” system, the Rangers played 28 games including playoffs, and scored two goals or fewer in 14 of them, including five times in seven playoff games.

And as I posted last night, the bottom line on the seven-gamer against Washington: 11 goals in seven games, a number exaggerated even by the four allowed in Game 1 by Jose ThreeOrMore, who sat on the bench the rest of the series.

Or seven goals in six games against the rookie goalie, Simeon Varlamov. And that is five goals in six games if you subtract the two garbage-time goals in Game 6, when it was 5-1 in the third period.

You all know how I feel about the general skill level on the team. All the guys on the Rangers top two lines would be fine if they were on the second and third lines, even Gomez and Drury. But they weren’t.

And you all know about the cap hell that’s going to make this a difficult summer.

But we’ll get into that more as we go.

For now, some picks for the conference semis (after going a pathetic 4-4 in the first round).

Bruins over Hurricanes in six.
Penguins over Capitals in seven.
Detroit over Anaheim in six.
Chicago over Vancouver in six.

Anybody else want to go out on a limb?
——————————————
HART TROPHY (MVP) finalists: Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk.
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AFTERNOON UPDATE, 2:50 P.M.: Just got this on Blair Betts. He does have a concussion, but the fractured orbital bone will not require surgery. He should be fine over time. Of course, with concussions, you never know how much time.

I had the pleasure of sitting in Scotty Bowman’s office during the playoffs a couple of times when he was in Pittsburgh.

And he said this to me one day, although he probably said it a bunch of times:

“This is the only business where the worse job you do, the more vacation you get.”

Not much more needs to be said about Game 7, although I was thinking that I’ve been lucky enough to cover three of them with the Rangers (all home-ice wins), and as a kid I saw the one in 1971 at Chicago and the one in 1974 in Philadelphia (both road losses).

So I’m pretty excited tonight, even as a neutral observor.

I’m sure you guys are much more excited that I, and probably a lot more nervous, and maybe we ought to hire a cardiologist to be on hand here at the Festivus Blog for tonight.

Here we go, one hour and counting.

Try to enjoy it.

(Just a side note, in case it doesn’t go as you hope, please try not to use profanities. Thank you.)
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PS, I don’t buy this whole thing about how important the first goal is based on the rest of the series. First of all, if you put all that importance in the first goal and don’t get it, then what? Do you quit?

Also, Game 6, the Caps scored first, the Rangers came right back with one. It was the third, fourth and fifth goals that were biggest.

In Game 5, the first goal was big because the Rangers didn’t score all night. Ditto Game 3. And just the opposite in Game 2, when the first goal was the only goal. Washington scored the first goal in Game 1 and lost. The Rangers scored first in Game 4, and that wouldn’t have been enough if they hadn’t added another one.

First goal: overrated.

Sorry so late with this post, everybody. I am sick as a dog today. Feel like I’ve got hockey pucks inside my sinuses and Donald Brashear sitting on my lungs.

But this is the biggest day of the season—and it will be the best day of the season for you guys if the Rangers go directly from D.C. to Boston, and the worst day of the season if they don’t—so I’m going to tough it out.

Just crawled out of bed because I wanted to be sure I can stick it out tonight, even if goes multiple OTs.

Here is my story from The Journal News and LoHud.com today. The Rangers are really playing up the “we’re huge underdogs, everybody’s counting us out” angle, which is fine. JohnTortorella was saying yesterday that they should be relaxed to tonight because of that.

The Capitals are playing up the make-amends angle. Last year as you know they fell behind Philadelphia 3-1, came back to force a Game 7 at home, and lost it on a Flyers power play in overtime.

There’s not much more to be said. The Rangers can win Game 7. They will either have to find a way to outscore the Capitals in a 4-3, 5-4 game (not bloody likely) or they will have to find a way to shut down the now out-of-the-barn offensive horses. Henrik Lundqvist, obviously, will be the key, but he can’t do it alone as he did earlier in the series.

I’ll be back later if there’s any news. I doubt Anisimov will play. I think in a Game 7, Tortorella will be loyal to the 20 on his roster. I could be wrong. Again.
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Selke Trophy (best defensive forward) finalists: Datsyuk, Kesler, Richards.
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VIEWING PARTY TONIGHT: 

New York, April 28, 2009 – The New York Rangers will host hundreds of fans as they gather together at Clearview’s Ziegfeld Theatre to cheer on the Blueshirts for Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. The Rangers will face-off against the Washington Capitals in the final game of the series tonight at 7 p.m.  Rangers legends Adam Graves and Nick Fotiu will join the Blueshirt faithful and give away special Rangers playoff prizes.  The game will be shown live on the big screen on MSG Network at 7 p.m.  Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and admission isFREE.  For additional Rangers playoff updates, please visit newyorkrangers.com. 

                   WHAT:     New York Rangers viewing party to watch Game 7 of the Rangers vs. Capitals playoff series; live coverage on MSG Network.

                    WHO:       Adam Graves, Nick Fotiu, Rangers Fans

                    WHERE:  Clearview’s Ziegfeld Theatre, 54th St. between 6th and 7th Ave.

                    WHEN:     Tuesday, April 28, 2009 @ 6 p.m.

Hi, folks. It’s Joe Erwin getting things started today. Carp will be checking in later and will be posting throughout the game tonight.

By now you know the numbers: The Rangers have never won a Game 7 on the road, going 0-4. Their last Game 7 on the road was a 4-3 loss in Philly in 1974 to the Flyers, who went on to win the Cup. For road teams overall, though, the numbers aren’t awful. Since the NHL went to a best-of-seven format in 1939, the home team has won 78 of 123 times in Game 7. That means the road team has won 37 percent of the time.

The other piece of good news, as Carp pointed out today, is that as bad as the Rangers have played the last two games, they can erase it all with a win tonight.

So what do you think? Can the Rangers do this?

The word I’m getting is that Donald Brashear is going to be suspended any minute and that it will be severe.

Ooops … here it is, from NHL.com

Also, word is that there may not be enough video evidence to slap a suspension on whichever Capital bit Brandon Dubinsky. Apparently the teeth marks aren’t enough because there are conflicting reports on which Cap did the biting. Jim Schoenfeld and Dubinsky thought it was Shoane Morissonn.
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Finalists for the Vezina Trophy: Backstrom, Mason and Thomas.

It is actually unbelievable, isn’t it, that John Tortorella hasn’t issued a public apology, a mea culpa, for A) hitting a woman in the head with a water bottle and B) being suspended for Game 6 of a playoff series after talking about discipline? That he feels no need to make amends with the fans?

Here is the news from today: Blair Betts has a broken orbital bone in addition to a concussion. So he’s out long term. Donald Brashear has a hearing with the NHL today regarding the hit—which Tortorella said was not an elbow, but said it was “a head shot and late.”

Artem Anisimov was recalled from Hartford, but Tortorella is not sure if he will play, or if both Colton Orr and Aaron Voros will be in the lineup.

I’ll be back shortly with some quotes, especially Tortorella refusing to talk about his suspension, in confrontational fashion.

Here, though, is the quote of the day, from Brandon Dubinsky, who had his right wrist wrapped, where he was allegedly bitten by Shoane Morrisonn (who denied it) in Game 6, and received a tetanus shot and antibiotics:

“The last time I saw that happen was Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield … in a sporting event, that is.”
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AFTERNOON UPDATE, 12:44 P.M.: Here’s the text of Larry Brooks of the Post having the guts to go face-to-face with Tortorella, and Tortorella stubbornly refusing to take any responsibility, or to be accountable, for his actions in D.C. that left his team short-handed for a crucial playoff game:

LB: Your response to being suspended? 
JT: “I have no response. I’m not discussing that.”
LB: “You’re not discussing the fact that you were suspended for a  playoff game?”
JT: “That’s just what I said. I’m not discussing that. Next question.”
LB: “You’re unbelievable, John. Unbelievable.”
JT: “You guys have your opinions on that, write ‘em.”
LB: “So, like, a player commits a mistake during a game, he doesn’t have an obligation to talk about it?”
JT: “You guys think you’re entitled to all information, Larry. I’m not giving you any information.”
LB: “I’m not asking for information. I’m asking your opinion of being suspended in the middle of a playoff series.”
JT: “You have an opinion. You don’t need me in the conversation.”
LB: “I need your opinion.”
JT: “You don’t need mine, and I’m not gonna give it to you. Next question, please.”