New York Rangers: Did John Tortorella's Line Combos Cause 4-2 Loss to Toronto?

The New York Rangers finally returned home to Madison Square Garden tonight. After a long summer of renovations, The Garden was finally ready for the big night. The Rangers were ready to get back to playing solid hockey at home.

The first period saw the Rangers score three times. One goal counted and two were disallowed. Whether or not the other goals should have counted is neither here nor there. What matters is that the Rangers failed to play 60 minutes of solid, smart, and consistent hockey.

After going up 1-0, New York allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to score four unanswered goals before they responded.

Topsy Turvy Line Changes

The team continues to look lost on the ice. Brandon Dubinsky has failed to impress anyone so far this season. He took some undisciplined penalties tonight and one that was questionable at best. For the Rangers to have a chance, the Rangers need to start developing some line chemistry.

John Tortorella was at it again tonight as he mixed more combinations tonight than a three armed bartender. This is how the lines looked at the start of the game:

Ruslan Fedotenko | Brad Richards (A)| Marian Gaborik
Brandon Dubinsky | Derek Stepan | Ryan Callahan (C)
Wojtek Wolski | Brian Boyle | Brandon Prust
Erik Christensen | Artem Anisimov | Kris Newbury

This is how the lines looked towards the end of the game:

Brandon Dubinsky | Brad Richards (A)| Ryan Callahan (C)
Ruslan Fedotenko | Derek Stepan | Wojtek Wolski 
Brian Boylei |Artem Anisimov | Brandon Prust
Kris Newbury | Erik Christensen | Marian Gaborik

How will the Rangers gain any sense of chemistry and how will they generate offense with Gaborik on the fourth line?

The simple answer to this question is they won’t be able to accomplish either one.

What The Rangers Need To Do

The Rangers will practice tomorrow before squaring off against the Ottawa Senators. The Rangers need to work on solidifying their lines in practice. Whether he likes it or not, Tortorella needs to keep lines together. If he can go five or more games, (pipe dream), without making changes, his forwards can acclimate themselves with their line mate and the Rangers would become a better team going forward.

Additional Notes

Congratulations to Dan Girardi. Tonight Girardi served as an alternate captain in Marc Staal’s absence. He also scored the Rangers’ first goal. He also took a puck high up near the face as the game went on.

Michael Sauer made a great save on Mikhail Grabovski during the game. Sauer looked good in his first game back. Sauer logged 21:42 minutes of ice time. As Sauer gets more comfortable, he should be back in the 25:00-30:00 minute range.

Box Score Courtesy of NHL.com

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST PERIOD
06:23		NYR	DAN GIRARDI (1) WRIST - ASST: M. GABORIK (1) AND A. ANISIMOV (3)
2ND PERIOD
01:20		TOR	MATTHEW LOMBARDI (2) SNAP - ASST: T. BOZAK (5) AND C. GUNNARSSON (3)
3RD PERIOD
02:11		TOR	JOFFREY LUPUL (5) WRIST - ASST: J. GARDINER (3) AND P. KESSEL (7)
06:33		TOR	CLARKE MACARTHUR (1) SLAP - ASST: M. KOMISAREK (1)
13:54		TOR	MIKE BROWN (1) WRIST - ASST: J. LILES (7)
15:26		NYR	MICHAEL DEL ZOTTO (1) WRIST - ASST: NONE

SHOTS ON GOAL

	1ST	2ND	3RD	T
TORONTO ›	10	16	10	36
NY RANGERS ›	16	7	7	30

TEAM STATS

	PIM	PP	HITS	FO WINS	GVA	TKA	BKS
TORONTO ›	13	0/4	15	31	3	5	9
NY RANGERS ›	13	0/3	17	31	10	9	19

The Rangers did not play consistently tonight. Moving forward the main goal is gaining line chemistry. If the Rangers can do that, they should be fine moving forward.

Next Game

Saturday October 29th vs Ottawa Senators 3:00 PM EST 

Tom Urtz Jr is an NHL Featured Columnist. For more NHL free-agent news, updates and alerts about players: