New York Rangers Need More Scoring

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

The Rangers, who were badly outscored 19-11 by the Washington Capitals in the seven-game series, lost two gifted scorers last summer in Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan who, despite being 600-goal scorers, were deemed too 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, registering only 46 points.

"We’re not an offensive juggernaut—and that comes back and bites us," Rangers coach John Tortorella told reporters, talking about his team, whose offense scored only 210 regular season goals to rank second to last (ahead of the New York Islanders) in the Eastern Conference.

Tom Renney, who started the season behind the Rangers coach, claimed just day before being fired last February that the Rangers' best chance at success was to win those 2-1 games behind their all-star goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

The four-year veteran was outstanding early in the first round and played a major role in helping his Rangers build a 3-1 series lead. After that, he struggled badly in Games 5 and 6.

During Game 7, Lundqvist was back to his stellar self, but the Rangers couldn’t finish, dropping a 2-1 decision to be eliminated from the playoffs.

"You could see it on my face," Lundqvist, who has won 30 or more games in his first four NHL seasons, told reporters 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 the Rangers, who got off to a fast 10-2-1 start. Toward mid-season, they began to slump. 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 the addition of defensemen Derek Morris and Nik Antropov, the Rangers were an improved team and finished in the seventh seed.  

Now, Tortorella said believes if the Rangers are to take that next step in becoming a contending team, they must upgrade their offense.

Perhaps general manager Glen Sather is now regretting not signing future Hall-of-Famers Jagr and Shannahan, who might have made the difference in that tight Game 7.