Rangers Need More Scoring

Rangers Lose First Round Series

Neil Becker

29sports.com

 Reflecting on the New York Rangers opening round playoff loss coach John Tortorella pointed to a lack of offence as a major reason for why they are still not playing.

New York who were badly outscored 19-11 by the Washington Capitals in what was a seven game series, lost two gifted scorers last summer  in Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan who despite being 600 goals scorers were both deemed to expensive.

Expected to do the bulk of scoring and provide the leadership were Scott Gomez and Chris Drury who both had quality seasons but scored less than 60 points.

A third player who was brought in last year to put up some big offensive numbers was former Vancouver Canuck Markus Naslund who disappointed in registering only 46 points.

“We’re not an offensive jugernaut and that comes back and bites us,” said Rangers coach John Tortorella about his team whose offence scored only 210 regular season goals to rank second last (behind the New York Islanders) in the Eastern Conference.

Tom Renney who started the season behind the Rangers coach claimed last February just days before being fired that the Rangers best chance at success was to win those 2-1 games behind their all star goalie Henrik Lundqvist. This four year veteran was outstanding early in the first round as he played a major role in helping his Rangers built a 3-1 series. After that he struggled badly in game five and six. During game seven Lundqvist was back to his stellar self but the Rangers couldn’t finish as they dropped a 2-1 decision.

“You could see it on my face,” Lundqvist who has won 30 or more games in his first four NHL seasons said after being eliminated.

“It’s tough. I can’t believe the season is over. Out of seven games, maybe they were the better team, but I still think we did a great job.”

Early in the season life was great for New York who got off to a fast 10-2-1 start. Towards mid- season they began to slump and a 2-7-3 dry spell in late January/early February left them in sixth place and in grave danger of missing the playoffs.

With the re -acquisition of super pest Sean Avery and by adding defenseman Derek Morris and Nik Antropov the Rangers were an improved team and finished in the seventh seed.  

Now Tortorella believes that if the Rangers are to take that next step in becoming a contending team then they must upgrade their offence. Perhaps general manager Glen Sather is now regretting not signing future hall of famer Jagr or Shannahan who might have made that difference in that tight game seven.

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