A post-game tableau, waiting for cuts....

                     DETROIT---The post-game scene around the locker room was hockey’s version of a Renaissance painting, where the subjects and their positioning on the canvas often are revealing.

In bright red block letters on the white walls outside the visitor’s locker room at Joe Louis Arena are the names of all the Red Wings who have won NHL awards. Yeah, there are plenty. Rows and rows.

After the post-game interviews about the 5-3 Rangers loss (Sean Avery told me that the league had not contacted him about the “can’t touch a superstar” remarks he attributed to a referee), the players changed into street clothes.

Outside, the two Henriks, Lundqvist and Zetterberg, shared a conversation in the wide corridor. The language was both Swedish and English, but no one was eavesdropping.

Wings coach Mike Babcock walked toward the exit and joked with Derek Boogaard, who was sitting against the far wall, “Glad you weren’t out there on the ice tonight.”

The Rangers all were hanging in different bunches: this group will be trimmed down today, and really don’t know each other all that well. Dane Byers and Dale Weise, Hartford buds in suits, were leaning against the near wall. Ruslan Fedotenko and Tim Kennedy, who will survive the cut, were together. Garnet Exelby sat far away, beyond where a truck, with back door open, was being loaded with equipment.

Derek Stepan, bag over a shoulder, walking alone, tried to leave quickly, but a reporter stopped him for one question. Former Wisconsin teammate Ryan McDonagh left alone later.

John Tortorella came out, stood in front of a blue made-for-TV Rangers
backdrop that is shipped and unfurled at every road game, and answered some questions. The crowd dispersed. Some won't see each other again for a while. That's business.
 

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Rangers and yours truly are back in NY, no practice today, but the aforementioned cuts and the future of Wade Redden will be today's storylines, coming up here and twitter.com/stevezipay....