Tortorella won't play Boudreau's games

GREENBURGH, N.Y.

John Tortorella didn't bite. He didn't want to get sucked into the he-said, he-said gamesmanship that Caps coach Bruce Boudreau tried to start on Monday.

Well, he bit a little, saying that he was confident the officials for Wednesday's Game 4 would not be "influenced by the whining that's going on here." Calling the opposing coach a whiner isn't exactly a "no comment," but for Tortorella, it's about as close to nothing as you'll get.

Tortorella has changed since 2009, when he was just 21 games into his Rangers tenure and in charge of a playoff team that he still knew very little about. His water-bottle incident with a Caps fan during Game 5 was a mistake, a misstep for a Stanley Cup-winning coach who was trying to establish himself in a new town.

Now, just two years later, Tortorella seems content to let Boudreau do the popping off. Tortorella's team hasn't had much success, but he still has the air of someone who knows what he's doing is right, so he doesn't need to distract with words or water-bottle squeezes.

"He's got his name on that trophy, so he knows what he's doing, as far as I'm concerned," Erik Christensen said Tuesday. "I heard about what [Boudreau] said, and I know Torts won't care one bit. His total focus is on getting us ready for Game 4 and not allowing us or him to get caught up in anything else."

That 2004 Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay on Tortorella's resume is the main reason Glen Sather went against his usual inclinations and hired a complete outsider to the general manager's usual circle -- he did that once, in 2002, and Bryan Trottier lasted 54 games.

But Tortorella had the pedigree, he'd helped build and mold a Lightning team from the ground up and that is what was needed here, despite the modest success the Jaromir Jagr-led, Tom Renney-coached Rangers had in the three-plus seasons after the lockout.

He came in with a reputation as a demanding, emotional coach. His players have certainly seen plenty of both those traits, but for the most part this season, they've seen a coach who has understood how far his young team has come in two seasons in terms of maturity and self-discipline.

"There have been times this year when I've expected him to come in and rip our heads off, and it hasn't happened," Brandon Prust said. "He's stayed real positive for the most part and I think we've done the same."

Tortorella said before this series began that his change did come about because his players showed him something. "I had to change," he said, "out of respect to my team."

In 2009, this was not his team. He was feeling out players and roles, and it did not take him long to identify whom the Rangers should be built around and how long a growing process that can seem.

There are more steps still, of course. This is an eighth-place team that's down 2-1 in the first round, not a victory away from a chance at a Cup.

But though there may have been some arrogance from Tortorella when he arrived, it's gone now. It's a well-earned confidence these days, a belief that the Rangers are going in the right direction, Tortorella's direction.

So he can afford to stay focused on Wednesday and let Boudreau try to gain the upper hand in the mental side of the game. Tortorella's team won't be bothered by it.

"Winning or losing, there's a whole lot that goes into that," Tortorella said. "I do know we'll be ready to play. I have no doubts about that."