By Stanley Cup 2012
Posted: Thursday, May 24, 2012 | 06:19 PM
Categories: Hockey Night in Canada, NYR VS NJ, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers
New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella says he's comfortable with his team's mindset facing elimination. (John Woods/Canadian Press)
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By Jay Greenberg in New York
These New York Rangers have been to Game 6 trailing and done that well.
They even fell behind at Ottawa 1-0 on the scoreboard before punching in three goals in 11:24 -- intense rapid fire in the post-season and not only for the offensively-challenged -- to get back on their feet.
Two rounds later, the Rangers are still standing, just six wins from the Stanley Cup.
"We have been through these situations a lot this year," Rangers coach John Tortorella said Thursday. "I am very comfortable as far as our mindset as we approach.
"It's a good group, a group that stays with it. I think they showed last night, handling the adversity early on. There's not a lot of panic there. And we're a pretty good hockey team."
The Rangers, a pretty good team, not a great team, spotted the Devils three goals in the first ten minutes of Game 5 and then took over, only tolose in the end 5-3 and fall behind 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Final.
No team has ever won the Stanley Cup after going to Game 7 twice in the first two rounds. And no coach has ever been more disdainful of such a food-for-thought historical premise than has been Tortorella, who is especially tired of fatigue questions in addition to being fatigued of and questions not about this Ranger team in this season.
"What?" he answered when inevitably queried about 1994 and Mark Messier's guarantee of victory when the clouds hung low and dark for the Rangers going to New Jersey for Game 6.
Tortorella then tried to pretend he was oblivious to the mania of the fans and media who want captain Ryan Callahan - sorry, not the type -- to declare the Rangers Game 6 winners before the puck is dropped.
"Not to disrespect what happened, but that has nothing to do with how we're preparing, I guess is the best way to put it," Tortorella said finally.
He is not calling down the captain from the front office or even summoning himself to a Bully Pulpit to squeeze one more ounce of incentive from a team that already has come through the wringer twice in these playoffs.
"I don't have to motivate the team," said Tortorella. "I think our team is motivated.
"I don't look at us overcoming a 3-2 deficit. We need to win a hockey game. So we prepare as we always do. There's no magic. There are no special speakers coming in. There is none of that.
"I think we found our game last night and I think that was mostly a mindset. We played more on our toes. We played to who we are."
That is: A well-drilled, hard working young club one more good player away from being clearly better than the pack that unsuccessfully chased the Rangers to the Eastern Conference regular-season title.
The Devils, who were comfortably lying in the weeds all season in back of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, hardly are on the verge of a monumental upset here.
"[In 1994], the Rangers were a good team when they beat us," said Devils goalie Marty Brodeur Thursday. "We were not supposed to compete with them at all in '94.
"They made these trades and they had all these guys at the end and they pulled it off in a dramatic way. But this time around, we feel we can play with them. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable with these games coming up."
Note the plural use of "games".
Avoiding Game 7
Both Dainus Zubrus and Patrik Elias said Thursday there was no way the Devils want to go back to Madison Square Garden for Game 7, but they already have won there twice in this series.
Marty Brodeur, who let in two clunkers in Game 5, knows that just like the Rangers take comfort in their Game 6 win in Ottawa, the Devils know they can do what Ottawa and Washington couldn't -- win Game 7 at The Garden if necessary.
The Devils also understand they got away a substandard effort in Game 5 and have to be better because the Rangers still can be.
"I don't think we played that well and some of it is because of them," said Zubrus. "But at the same time we didn't hold onto the pucks.
"There is definitely room to improve for us."
The Rangers, though squirming on the hook, still have similar wiggle room.
"Some guys have thrived, some guys haven't," admitted Tortorella, talking about what players have learned through the franchise's first extended post-season run since 1997 and what the organization has learned about them going forward.
That said, the coach, whose team had won one period in its last nine, changed all his lines around for Game 5, and not only got a goal out of the slumping Callahan by putting him with the beleaguered Brandon Dubinsky and Artem Anisimov, but received the Rangers' best game of the series overall.
"Some of them," the coach said when asked if he was satisfied will all his alterations. "I'm not going to tell you which ones it was and which ones it wasn't.
"I still think we have to do better."
Henrik Lundqvist stopped only 11 of 15 shots he faced. Brad Richards has not scored a goal in this series.
"I just know Hank will play his best game tomorrow night," said. Tortorella. "I expect [Richards] to play his best game too, I do.
"I understand his makeup and think he will find a way."
Not a guarantee. But from a coach who doesn't want to hear about 1994, it came awfully close as an expression of complete confidence. As the Rangers go to the well one more time -- or one time too many -- these are not words spoken by a coach of a team he fears has run dry.
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