Posted by By Jon Gabrielle, NY Rangers correspondent
From a lifetime of following hockey, one gets to hear a lot of coach speak. It comes with the territory as they say. Cliches abound and little in the way of bulletin board material is rarely uttered.
Wednesday night, the New York Rangers played one of their worst games of the year, a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of todays Winter Classic participant, the Philadelphia Flyers.
Things like , “compete level” and “get back to work,” as well as the proverbial, “we have to play better” could be heard in the losers locker room. Highly expected rhetoric immediately following a thumping.
Conversely, 24 hours later and short flight to the south, the Ranger locker room was still filled with cliches, but this time with a different twist.
A 2-1 win over a team nestled quite comfortably in the cellar of the NHL can have that effect. It had the Rangers saying all the right things.
What was noteworthy however, was Carolina’s head coach, Paul Maurice’s comments after the contest. “I don’t think the Rangers played a real tough game…it was a slug from one end to the other.”
Down the hallway at the RBC Center, Ranger boss, John Tortorella had a different take. ”It’s obvious we competed harder…and I thought we answered well in all aspects of the game.”
Olympic goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, said the effort was, “one of our better games lately…we played very solid.”
Lundqvist disagrees with Maurice (photo by/ wikipedia)
Two outstanding hockey men, Paul Maurice and John Tortorella, and two very different opinions about the same game.
Does the truth lie somewhere in between? Probably.
Are two goals usually enough to win a hockey game in the National League? Not often. Every team averages over two goals a game including the last place Hurricanes, although they are also tied for dead last in goals scored. They have potted only 100 in the 40 games they have played this year.
The Rangers continue to rely on the All Star goalie and an anemic offense to stay close to the pack, in terms of the playoff race. With the 2 goals last night, New York has scored 107 goals to date, barely more than Carolina.
Yes, the Rangers won a “slug” of a contest according to Maurice and “competed harder” according to Tortorella.
Saturday there will be a rematch bewtween these two coaches and their respective teams in a matinee at Madison Square Garden.
I will be watching…but also listening.
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