NYR: One foot on the platform, the other on the train

Throughout this season, the old bromide about indecision has come to mind: You know, the adage about being one foot on the platform and the other on the train. (Lord have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways...)

Consider the Rangers on the platform under John Tortorella: Defense-first, patient, safety over death.

Enter Vigneault, who urged the Rangers to get on the O-Train, the quick-paced, pass and shoot-centric system that lit the way for the success of the Canucks.

Problem:  In New York, the engineers, conductors and crew aren't the same as in that scenic city in Western Canada.

As AV has discovered, now 32 games in, and with Ryan Callahan on the shelf,  the Blueshirts will be stepping back on the platform, as he asserted last night, not for the first time.

"I have an idea of how I'd like us to play. I'm not quite sure we have the personnel to play the type of game I'd like to play, which is more offensive-oriented. It should be obvious to everyone that we have a challenge right now to score goals. We've got to be more defense-oriented for the time being."

So kids, the grind-it-out locomotive, the milk train, is back on the tracks.

It's a local, game-by-game, station-to-station, not the express that Vigneault envisioned when he took the job in the summer.  Should he changed tracks sooner? Watched some more tape of this group?

With six more games on this homestand above Penn Station, there's still plenty of time to begin to fight for the third playoff slot in the Metro. But the ride will be a lot bumpier.