Rangers lifeless in Tortorella's return to Tampa
Photo credit: AP | Tampa Bay Lightning's Steve Downie (9) prepares to put the puck past New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, left, during the second period. (November 27, 2009)
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Nov. 27: Tampa Bay 5, Rangers 1
TAMPA - The video tribute to John Tortorella came 12:23 into Friday night's game during his first trip with the Rangers to the place where he coached the Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004.
"Thanks John and Welcome Back," the scoreboard read. The fans gave him a standing ovation.
And Tortorella, shown on the board, was stone-faced.
That's because his Rangers team embarrassed him, and themselves, in the coach's return home.
The Rangers' 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay was, simply put, their worst game of the season. It was a no-show night of losing battles, losing assignments and losing hockey.
"Everybody stunk," Tortorella said. "Top to bottom, from the goaltender on out, no one played."
A couple of Tortorella's old charges were big factors. Martin St. Louis, Tortorella's prized pupil, had three assists. And Vinny Lecavalier, who battled with Tortorella constantly over effort, had an assist, a mini-fight with Sean Avery and a bushel of scoring chances.
There are Rangers who can be singled out. Michal Rozsival made two grevious errors in the first period that led to scoring chances, continuing a pattern of poor decision-making.
Enver Lisin, dropped to the fourth line with the return of Ales Kotalik, made very little out of his 8:46 of ice time.
Brian Boyle was on ice for three goals against and lost two fights.
But it was, as Tortorella put it, a group effort.
"Just look at our start. We weren't ready to play," Chris Drury said. "We just wasted our good effort down in Florida."
That Wednesday game also was a group effort, 17 players pulling together to play a smart road game when Wade Redden went down with an injury, and then 16 when Matt Gilroy stood up for his teammates and got 17 penalty minutes.
Friday night was the flip side: Dumb and deaf to the coach's pleas for consistency.
Bobby Sanguinetti made his NHL debut, and his only error was screening Steven Valiquette on Kurtis Foster's second goal of the night, which made it 5-0.
Ryan Callahan's garbage-time goal, his first in seven games, denied Mike Smith's shutout with 2:07 left.
"We're going to have to make a decision here sooner or later about whether we're going to be a consistent hockey club," Tortorella said. "If we're going to be a team that wants to be there at the end, we have to decide that."
Tortorella's decision to pull Henrik Lundqvist after Paul Szczechura's dribbler bounced through traffic and in to give Tampa Bay a 4-0 lead 12:25 into the second did not sit well with the Rangers' goaltender. He skated off the ice as Valiquette skated on and disappeared into the locker room for the remainder of the game.
Tortorella didn't like Lundqvist's night, but the game could have been 10-0 without him. "I was expecting to keep on playing," Lundqvist said. "They made a call, and that's it."
Lundqvist may at least be ready to jump back in Saturday night in Pittsburgh. But if his team isn't ready to do the same, it'll be another long night.
