Rangers Report Blog

Rangers coach John Tortorella was suspended for a game for throwing water on a fan, etc. in the Friday night game in Washington. Here is what the league had to say in its release:

NHL SUSPENDS NY RANGERS’ TORTORELLA FOR ONE GAME

NEW YORK (Apr. 25, 2009) – The National Hockey League announced today
that New York Rangers coach John Tortorella has been suspended for one game
for squirting a fan with water and throwing a water bottle that struck a
fan during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Final Series with the
Washington Capitals Apr. 24 in Washington.

The incident occurred 6:33 into the third period.

“While it is a difficult decision to suspend a coach at this point in
a Playoff Series, it has been made clear to all of our Players, Coaches and
other bench personnel that the National Hockey League cannot—and will not –
tolerate any physical contact with fans,” said NHL Senior Executive Vice
President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. “We do not take
this action lightly. It is the result of an entire day of investigation and
evaluation that included the retrieval and review of videotape of the
incident and discussions with Mr. Tortorella, other Rangers’ bench
personnel and a number of other people, including the security personnel at
the Verizon Center.

“That investigation revealed that Mr. Tortorella squirted a fan with
water before Mr. Tortorella was doused with a beverage.

“While, in these circumstances, it always is easy to allege
mitigating circumstances, the fact is we do not tolerate contact with our
fans in this manner. That is communicated before each season in a memo that
is issued by the League to all of the management, coaches and players of
every team.

“The Sept. 8, 2008, memo entitled, ‘SUPPLEMENTARY DISCIPLINE
REMINDERS FOR THE 2008-09 SEASON,’ included the following section regarding
Contact With Fans:

Even where a fan is verbally abusive, intoxicated, or profane,
Club personnel should either ignore the conduct or, where appropriate,
seek the assistance of police or security personnel at the arena.

This prohibition extends to all forms of physical contact,
whether it be direct physical contact, the throwing of objects (including hockey sticks
and other equipment), or even the squirting of water. While the latter form of
conduct may have, in the past, seemed to be of a minor or harmless character,
such conduct may serve only to incite and provoke an unruly fan and may ultimately
lead to unforeseen consequences.

Accordingly, please be on notice that all Club personnel
(management, coaches, trainers, and/or players) who engage in any
form of physical contact with fans, including the squirting of water,
will, on a going forward basis, be subject to discipline in the form
of a suspension. The Club involved will also be subject to a fine.

The suspension was issued pursuant to the Commissioner’s authority
under Section 6.3(j)(1)(a) of the NHL Constitution.  Tortorella will miss
the Rangers’ next game – tomorrow afternoon vs. Washington.——————————————
EVENING UPDATE, 10:35 P.M.:  With the Rangers’ minor-league team eliminated from the playoffs tonight, it is assumed that one or two of the members of the Wolf Pack coaching staff (Ken Gernander is the head coach at Hartford) will join Jim Schoenfeld on the bench for Game 6.

Here is the Rangers’ official reaction:

STATEMENT REGARDING JOHN TORTORELLA SUSPENSION
New York, April 25, 2009 – The New York Rangers have issued the following statement in response to Head Coach John Tortorella’s one game suspension:
“We disagree with the suspension and will have no further comment.”

 

a) Apparently they were ineffective in actually “rallying” the Rangers and

b) The cool little blue lighting element can be extracted from the sticks and

c) Thrown onto the ice when you are really upset at the end of a 4-0 shutout in the first home game of the playoff series against the Capitals.

John Tortorella was asked four questions after the game tonight. No one wanted to disturb the angry bear. But his answers were genuine. “It was just a good old fashioned spanking tonight,” Tortorella said. “We need to take our medicine here, get back to work and try to figure things out.”

Torts audio.

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The Rangers coach said the Rangers real trouble was on defense. “We were chasing our tails all night long, spinning and watching the puck.”

Sean Avery was not in the locker room.

Here is some Markus Naslund audio.

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Ryan Callahan describes the shot that hit the post, and this is PG-13: funny, but a tad salty. If you find that you are offended almost everything, do yourself a favor and visit nickelodeon.com instead. Better yet, stay off the Internet.

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I also sat in on the Alex Ovechkin press conference afterwards in the Caps locker room. Full disclosure, I could not understand everything he said. He did say that he didn’t want to talk about sitting in on the Rangers practice, that he thought it was something that was a big story for reporters.

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On a serious note, Tortorella said he was concerned about Chris Drury, who has not been himself since the playoffs began and has an unspecified arm/wrist/hand injury.

“Sure, sure I am,” Tortorella said. “Everybody knows how Chris is. It’s a concern. It’s something we need to think through here, and we’ll start tomorrow and see how he feels and we’ll go from there.”

Asked about the lack of jump:

“Not so much jump. There’s a number of things we didn’t come out with.”

“I thought they played very well defensively, and I thought we stunk defensively. That was the key to the game. They defended very well in front of their net and we were chasing our tail all night long, spinning and watching the puck. Against a team like that, the way they move the puck, you can’t be watching the puck. We had too many guys doing the same job and that was a big problem for us tonight.”

“I thought we were terrible defensively. I said a very important part of trying to compete in this series is having the puck, and you’re not going to have the puck if you play defense like we played tonight. To create offense, you need to be sound defensively and we weren’t. We weren’t even close. It was a good old-fashioned spanking tonight. Now we need to take our medicine and get back to work and try to figure some things out.”

And about the penalties:

“I’m not going to whine about penalties. We stunk. Simple.”
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DON’T FORGET: Carp and I are doing a Rangers chat TODAY, TUESDAY at noon.

Jane here to introduce our special guest blogger, a (former) hockey writer who looms large over this blog even though he doesn’t live here anymore. Ladies and gentleman, the Great Sam Weinman:

I am grateful to Carpie and Jane for letting me swing back by the old blog, a corner of cyberspace that I’m still adjusting to life without.

Not that I’m complaining about the new gig. But after the privilege of talking, writing, and thinking about hockey (very often in that order) incessantly the previous few years, it’s not the same sharing my thoughts with a) a wife who only tolerates hockey, and b) two young boys who barely grasp the concept of keeping score.

A typical conversation goes something like this:

Me (jumping up and down): Can this power play be any worse?

My wife: Sit down. You’re scaring the children.

But now it’s the playoffs, and both wife and children are beginning to understand that everything takes on a deeper meaning. On Wednesday night, before we headed over to watch Game 1 against the Capitals with my father, I explained to my 4-year-old son Charlie a long-time playoff-watching ritual of my Dad’s: if the Rangers are losing, you are not permitted to sit in the same seat. If the Rangers are winning, you are not permitted to move.

At that point Charlie took on a quizzical expression, as if he was contemplating a dark and twisted side of his grandfather that he had never seen before.

But he made it through on Wednesday, and so did the Rangers. And now after stealing a game in Washington against the Capitals, it’s worth asking whether this group has any sort of run in it this spring.

My typically nuanced answer: Yes. I think. Let me get back to you.

But first, a few random thoughts on the team since I went back to being just a fan:

The coaching change. It’s no secret in my time covering the team that I was a Tom Renney supporter. After all those depressing seasons that ended the first week of April, Renney was the coach who returned the Rangers to respectability, and he did it with a level of decency that is often missing in professional sports. But what became apparent after a while was that this group needed the type of kick-in-the-pants that Renney couldn’t provide.

In short, when your team is comprised of giants of the game like Jagr and Shanahan, then a coach who is going to allow veterans some latitude is a perfect fit. But when your group is clearly lacking a spark both on and off the ice, then you need a fiery presence to fill the void.

I am dubious of what kind of long-term shelf life John Tortorella will have since he’s been known to ride his players into the ground. But this season, he’s exactly what the Rangers needed.

As for Tortorella’s system, I doubt I’m breaking any new ground when I say it is infinitely more entertaining. Tortorella’s pressure system is  more up-tempo, it allows his skill players to take greater chances, and it at least subconsciously has players on their toes as opposed to their heels (which is another way of saying the Rangers are now playing “to win” as opposed to “not to lose”).

Given that the Rangers still lack a team-wide scoring touch, I worry about what happens if they get bottled up by a patient, defensive-minded team like the Bruins. But against the Capitals, especially since they boast the superior goaltender (Hey Jose Theodore, this is a puck. Have you guys met?) I think they can afford to open it up.

Sean Avery. OK, I admit it: I was one of those guys who thought the Rangers were smart in not re-signing Avery, mostly because I thought—to an even greater extent than Tortorella—that his act would wear thin over time. But the bizarre confluence of events earlier this season seems to have alleviated the problem. For one, the Rangers are currently on the hook for only half of Avery’s salary, so even if things erupt, say, a year from now, it won’t be as costly. But secondly, by all accounts Avery seems to be a different person. Still a vastly underrated skater, still a world-class pest (I admit, I laughed out loud a few weeks back when he whacked Tim Thomas from behind and pretended like he didn’t know what happened), he isn’t the in-house disruption that he once was. Don’t get me wrong: I always liked covering him. But the very reasons I liked covering him—i.e. the constant drama swirling around him—is the same reason why the Rangers were at first happy to see them go.

But now after a suspension and some requisite soul-searching, he’s the precise mixture of boring (off the ice) and excitable (on the ice) that the Rangers seem to need.

Plenty more to discuss, but I’ve gone long enough. So for now, I leave you with this:

Does anybody have any extra tickets for Monday night?

A little more than nine hours until the Rangers take ice in D.C., but in the meantime Carp and I will be talking about the game during a noon video chat today at www.lohud.com/rangersreportlive.

Grab a sandwich and join us. We’ll try to help you get through the meaningless hours until they drop the puck. Henrik Lundqvist vs. Alex Ovechkin, Chris Drury’s upper/lower body injury, it’s all on the table.

Chris Drury skated for the first time in four days today and said he felt good. Both he and Rangers coach John Tortorella said the captain was day-to-day, but Drury seemed optimistic that he would continue to improve.

Was his injury upper or lower body?

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Drury said. “I’m still waiting to be told.”

On Alex Ovechkin:

“What doesn’t impress you?” Drury asked. “He’s amazing. There aren’t enough words in English or Russian to describe him.”

041409drury

Yes, Henrik Lundqvist heard what Ovechkin said about his pads being super big.

“There’s no way you can cheat these days because they measure it all the time,” Lundqvist said. ”…I guess I look big then, but I’ve used the same stuff almost all year.”

And the Rangers goalie doesn’t think Ovechkin was trying to needle him, and he wouldn’t even chalk it up to pre-game gamesmanship.

“I think it’s more that you get so many questions about so many things,” Lundqvist said. ”…some things will stand out a little bit more. I don’t think he tried to stir the pot.”

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Tortorella experimented with the lines a little today. Avery-Gomez-Antropov and Voros-Betts-Orr were the same, but Dubinsky centered Drury and Callahan once, and Markus Naslund was mixed in with the group. Zherdev skated with Korpikoski and Sjostrom.

“Most people counted us out but I don’t think we ever did,” Derek Morris. “Actually I know we never did.”
——-

Someone asked about my pick, which I emailed to Carp before he told me his and it was… Caps in 6. If you think I’m being negative just remember I covered the Jets last season. I have a lot of healing to do.
———
Update: Carp and I will host a live chat tomorrow where we will talk Italian food and roller derby! Actually, we will discuss the Rangers and Capitals in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Blast off for the chat is 12 noon. Be there with a question or a comment!

OK, so perhaps that is overstating it but tonight’s matchup with the Flyers is for all the marbles. Yes, technically they can still get into the playoffs even if they lose tonight, but clearly sewing up the berth with a game to spare avoids that sour air of desperation in Philly.

Don’t try telling that to John Tortorella. He insisted before the game tonight that this game is the same as any other, and the same for the players.

“They’re ready to play,” he said. ”…I consider all games important.”

When he wasn’t being testy—when a reporter walked in late he turned to a PR rep and suggested that the door be barred once his presser starts—he did reveal his lines. Tortorella said he liked the way the offensive lines were Avery, Gomez and Antropov; Naslund, Drury and Callahan; Dubinsky, Korpikoski and Zherdev and Sjostorm, Betts and Orr, and defensively it will be Staal and Girardi, Morris and Mara and Rozsival and Redden.

For a look at how the race stands now, check out nhlplayoffrace.com.

The Rangers can clinch with a win over Philly on Thursday. The 3-1 win over Montreal and an assist from the Flyers with a 2-1 win over Florida means the Rangers just need one out of the next two games to mathematically eliminate the Panthers.

Here are some post game quotes.

John Tortorella on Ryan Callahan (below accepting the Steven McDonald award)…

“He is a guy we seem to talk about a lot here. We have shifted him over to that line (and) I think he makes that line. Just little plays like that, he is involved in stuff like that all night long. Some plays that people don’t even notice. That is his foundation. That is why he is such a good player. That is why he ends up with more offensive chances because he knows how to play away from the puck, do the little things. I thought he and Chris (Drury) were outstanding, and (Markus) Naslund. Naslund played a good game.”

Henrik Lundqvist on tonight’s game…

“We are going to go for it Thursday. It is a big game again. We have a great opportunity to play great now and go into the playoffs feeling really good. If we take care of business and do our job here on Thursday that (will be) the case. Rest tonight, have a good practice tomorrow and then get ready for a big battle. Playing Philly here is going to be great, a good atmosphere. The last home game before the playoffs hopefully. I am looking forward to it. It is a fun time of the year. It is exciting, it is intense. That is the key for us as well – to try to enjoy it even though it is a lot of pressure. You have to have fun.”

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Henrik Lundqvist on Chris Drury…

“He has been really sharp lately. We all know it. When it comes down to big games, he always steps up. That is why he is one of the best players. He knows where to be and knows what to work on. When the game gets more important, that is the way he is.”

Chris Drury on tonight’s game…

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“I thought we had a good consistent effort. Obviously, we know where we’re at and how big each game is. We needed this one. Guys responded. I think we were in their zone quite a bit, so it limits them. (We had) a good offense and a good defense.”

And lastly, here’s a little Paul Mara snippit, he says they’ll be ready on Thursday, and they’ll win.

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Update: Here’s the link to the game recap on nhl.com. The fabulous Carp will be out at practice this morning and have something for you all later. If you want to check out the video chat we did yesterday you can still find it archived here, or check out any of the chats done all season including those conducted by the Great Sam Weinman. He by the way is at the Masters this week, at a golfing event he alleges to be a “sport.”

This is make or break for the Rangers tonight, no other way to put it. Nik Antropov (left knee) is playing, which Rangers coach John Tortorella said earlier tonight. Montreal is 41-28-10 and in seventh place in the standings, while the Rangers are 40-30-9 and in eighth. With 89 points, the Rangers are tied with Florida but have the tiebreak with three games remaining. The game is on MSG Plus.

If you missed the chat today, you can catch the replay of Rangers Report live chat. Scroll down to the Rangers Report and click, then click “on demand” and select today’s chat. More after the game from Madison Square Garden.

Update: The winner of the Steven McDonald extra effort award this season, as voted by the fans, is Ryan Callahan.

Starting players: Paul Mara, Derek Morris, Sean Avery, Nik Antropov, Scott Gomez and Henrik Lundqvist.

Keep scrolling down to read Carp’s post about what is at stake tonight against visiting Montreal, but there was a little news off of this morning’s optional skate at the Rangers practice facility. Nik Antropov skated and will probably play tonight although neither he nor coach John Tortorella explicitly said as much.

But Antropov did say the left knee felt “all right” and, given the way Tortorella brough Michal Rozsival back pretty quickly from his knee injury, seems inclined to play his best players as the playoffs are on the line in the last three games of the season.

At the optional skate: Antropov, Sean Avery, Colton Orr, Brandon Dubinsky, Lauri Korpikoski, Aaron Voros, Fredrik Sjostrom, Steve Valliquette, Dan Girardi, Chris Drury and Blair Betts.

Tortorella had some interesting things to say about the Rangers lacking confidence and scoring, which reminded me of what he said right after he arrived. He addresses that in the clip below. He also said there were some players in the lineup tonight who he wouldn’t be playing if it were earlier in the season. Seems he meant performance, but it might’ve been fatigue. Guesses? Anyone?

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“What if we win tonight?” Tortorella said. “The whole thing changes again.”

And don’s forget our video chat today at 1! www.lohud.com/rangersreportlive

I’m bringing you part of the transcript of an interview Rangers season tickets holder Boomer Esiason and his partner Craig Carton did with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this morning on WFAN:

“He is a marked man, Avery,” Carton said.

“Other teams are marking him,” Boomer said.

“I don’t think he’s a marked man at all, he’s come back as smoothly as could have been the case under the circumstances,” Bettman said. “He’s doing his thing. When you’re an agitator and you play aggressive  you probably find your self in more things than others. But I think based on what happened this season, his comeback couldn’t have been any smoother.”

“I will say this,” Boomer said. “He’s working on his hockey skills because he’s not trying to agitate any more, he’s trying to become a big time hockey player.”

“And I think he’s helped the Rangers,” Bettman said.

“He’s got six goals and four assists, so yeah that’s pretty good,” Boomer said.

“I do want you to do me a favor though,” Carton said. “I’d like you to check the tape of the Devils game. And he gets thrown around like a rag doll and doesn’t hit or engage the other guy and somehow gets a two-minute penalty. That was wrong, you know it, we all know it, bad job.”

“On balance the Devils got the shorthanded situation and had to kill a penalty,” Bettman said. “You gotta to look at the whole context of what went on.”

As Carp reported earlier, Gary Bettman’s NHL Hour show today is at 4 p.m., on XM channel 204 and Sirius channel 208, or NHL.com. You can ask guest John Davidson questions by calling in at 1-877-645-6696 or by email at nhlhour@nhl.com.

And lastly, Carp and I are going to do another video chat next Tuesday at 1 p.m. before the Montreal game. Start thinking of your questions and join us for lunch!

Update: Michal Rozsival will not skate with the Rangers tonight, as reported by Andrew Gross who is traveling with the team.