Four Tallies From Cally And The Rout Is On

by RIch Baiocco

During the pre-game bench interview PIerre McGuire asked Coach Tortorella about the Rangers' four unsuccessful tilts against the conference leading Flyers and the teams recent winless homestand at the Garden. The normally curt coach chuckled "Truthfully, we stunk," and his smile broke the ice on a tense afternoon that could've potentially seen the 9th place Buffalo Sabres vault past the inconsistent blueshirts. Instead, the boys embraced the tickle of Torts' honesty, relaxed the grip on their sticks in the offensive zone and burst forth with 7 goals and a league leading 9th shutout for Henrik Lundqvist to remain in the playoff picture.

A few minutes before the game I sent a txt to GH1 saying Dubi was going to have a breakout game, a reference to #17's struggles to make an impact in this string of 1 goal losses the Rangers had recently accrued (Tortorella remarked to the press that he's trying hard, but "overthinking" the game). Today, before anyone in the Garden or the national television audience had time to think, Dubinsky's strength and puck protection below the goal line resulted in a crease pass to Ryan Callahan and a 1-0 Rangers lead before the game was two minutes old.

Before the period was over Cally sniped a puck over Boucher's shoulder on the powerplay, doubling the Rangers lead. It had been a near impossible feat for the Blueshirts: getting a 2 goal lead, but this was now 2 games in a row it happened and Garden fans rejoiced. A huge pad save by Henrik on an odd man rush centering feed kept the lead intact and closed out the first period.

After a controversial kick-in goal by Sean Avery was disallowed (*note the league--do you know how hard it is to redirect an elevated puck into the goal when someone is kicking out your feet? Can we consider a rule change?) to begin the middle stanza, Philly glimpsed some hope yet all was abandoned when Brandon Dubinsky pummeled thorn-in-our-side Flyer captain Mike Richards after a disagreeable hit from the flu-infested Broad Street bruiser. The surge was on as Mats Zuccarello scored his 2nd goal in as many games off a rush. Cally picked off a lazy pass by Stanley Cup Champion Kris Versteeg (you should know better, duda) in front and dusted the top shelf for his first career hat trick.

Zuccarello and Cally (that's 4, if you're counting. Marian who? haha j/k) scored again in the 3rd, as did Artem Anisimov who appears to be blossoming offensively, scoring his 2nd goal in as many games and showing characteristic Russian gallop on each as he separated himself from checkers and rushed in hard on 2 nervous goalies with reason to be. Anisimov is an X factor for the Rangers because despite being only a 2nd year player he has surpassed his rookie output, has tremendous offensive instincts and a sneaky wrist shot that surprises goalies. If he can get hot on the Dubinsky/Cally line other teams won't know what to do with that trio.

So I'm sure the question on everyone's mind when looking at the Rangers this afternoon was "WHO ARE THESE GUYS?" I mean, they even came out wearing their home White jerseys. Well part of the new look had to do with new personnel: Gaborik, who was out indefinitely with post-concussion headaches and Ryan McDonnough day-to-day with a wrenched knee were both in the lineup and played effectively. Gabi came out shooting and was involved in the offensive zone despite not making it onto the scoresheet. He also kept his legs moving and had a few of those roadrunner-type rushes through the neutral zone that kept Philly defenders off-balance. McDonnough was perhaps a little out of sync handling the puck in the offensive zone, but played strong D and kept Flyer forwards out of the crease.

But I think the real answer is in the Ranger's buzzword: "IDENTITY". Torts stresses it all the time as do the Hockey Night Live crowd, but I think they've been off on what the identity of the team actually is. It's Defense-minded, defense-first, sure, but we've defended pretty well all year and haven't been justly rewarded for our efforts. And why should we? The team who puts more pucks in the net wins the game. Our goalie leads the league in shutouts, not wins, and we're in 7th place. You need to score in this league to make the playoffs. But I think the true identity of the New York Rangers is a puck control team. We win games when--first of all--our goalie and defensemen control rebounds, our wingers and centers control the puck on the breakout instead of giving it up with a low percentage pass through the middle or curling back into the zone and getting pinched by a forechecker, our rushing forwards control the puck through the neutral zone. and our forechecking forwards hound the hell out of pucks and rebounds in the offensive zone. Today we did that. We beat Philly to almost every rebound and 50/50 puck. We put multiple shots on net, and when their D panicked and tried to clear the puck blindly, our D held it in and almost instantly threw it back at their net.

I'd love to see a stat on our puck control ice time for today, because when you have the puck that much it makes it so much easier to relax and implement plays. For a stretch a few weeks ago I couldn't remember the last time we had a breakaway or odd man rush, and I definitely couldn't remember the last time we scored on one. We were still winning games here and there, and scoring, but the goals were strictly grinder goals off the forecheck. The last 2 games we've discovered the potential in some open ice and it hasn't cost us our defensive-minded stinginess.

I also thought another factore in the win was Fedotenko being strong in all zones. I think this was his first game where the rust from his mostly injured second half had gone away. The difference is subtle but there's no doubt he anchors the Prust/Boyle line and helps complete their offensive zone cycles by being strong along the wall and behind the net. Boyle answered the bell against ugly-ass enforcer Jody Shelley (who gave a good pop to Matt Gilroy pinching) and though the fight garnered Boyle an instigator (no idea why, they dropped the gloves at the same time) it set an example for a Ranger team that refused to be bullied at home.

Exciting trip out west coming up this week. I think we can surprise Anaheim and San Jose and the fact that we only play twice this week gives some of the teams with games in hand a chance to catch play out.