NEW YORK – Madison Square Garden was an unhappy place for the first twenty minutes of game five last night. Then it was very unhappy with about four minutes to go in regulation.
In between those two time lines, the atmosphere was hopeful for the Rangers as they dug themselves out of a 3-0 hole.
Rangers head coach John Tortorella was asked after the game whether the focus on the start of games was counter-productive.
“We’re always looking to try to start the game strong,” Tortorella said. “We’re always looking. Nothing’s counterproductive. We had a tough start. Tough luck for them a little bit on a couple of them. But I thought we probably played our best game of the series tonight.”
Perhaps 35 minutes of game time could be described as the best of the series but certainly not the entire game. And only Monday did Tortorella talk about 60-minute efforts. But as he is want to do, Tortorella is defensive of his players’ efforts in every game.
A slight light of criticism could be heard of the entire team and not one single player when Tortorella discussed how the club played after tying the match at 3 with just 17 seconds gone in the third period. The Rangers bench boss felt the team stopped making plays after the tying goal.
“Whether they picked up — I think we helped them a little bit. Where I thought we did a really good job of making plays and controlling some of the play tonight, and then I just felt we started batting around a little bit and allowed them to gain some forechecking,” Tortorella related. “I didn’t think we were in real trouble. But they score a goal. They make a big play.”
The entire match can be seen as a learning experience for Tortorella too.
“Sure, you spend some time when you’re struggling in the game and learn from your mistakes. You can also spend some time with some of the good things you’ve done to get ready for our next game,” Tortorella said after the game. “We’ve been here before. We were here before earlier in the Playoffs. And so we’ll just take the next game. It’s all we’re looking for is our next game.”
Getting those lessons isolated and learned will need to be done quickly. The Rangers now face a confident New Jersey Devils team in game six. How do the Rangers take anything away from this game and their history in the 2012 playoffs?
“Just that; we’ve been through it before. And I know the guys are — it’s a hard one to lose the way we lost tonight, crawling back into it, but we’ll go through our day tomorrow. We’ll regroup,” Tortorella said. “And, again, I have tremendous amount of confidence in how we’ll react to this.”
Contact LM.Davis@prohockeynews.com
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