Now, Drury isn’t the best of quotes in the room, because he’s so reserved and many might say he can speak in clichés simply because of his guarded nature.

Yet, tonight was different, as the Ranger captain reached his boiling point with the team, after they were outplayed in their 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on home ice. Speaking with Drury, along with another reporter, when asked about what is the team’s problem, the center replied, “Immaturity, that’s what it’s been all year. Simple answer.”

And then I asked what can be done about it, Drury snapped, “Grow up real fast, in the last 12 or 13 games or whatever the hell we have left, or we will be watching playoff hockey.”

Then as the television cameras came over, the Ranger captain ended the interview.

Although he spoke for only about a minute, his words were as sharp as anytime during his three year tenure on Broadway. This team is very immature and is only in the playoff hunt because they have one of the top five goaltenders in the league.

This all starts from the top. If John Tortorella is to be believed from what he told the press today, then this team watches no video of the opponent and he doesn’t know the rules of the game off the top of his head.

If this is actually true, then Tortorella should be fired today. No modern coach can just wing it with an opponent by not watching video and of course he knows the rulebook, if he didn’t then he has no business standing behind a NHL bench.

We all know this isn’t the case. Rather, the Ranger coach continually dismisses questions from every reporter he doesn’t want to answer. Both questions were innocent enough (one was asked before the game and one after), but instead, Tortorella arrogantly and immaturely decides to blow off the reporters inquiries he doesn’t want to answer.

Frankly, if it wasn’t written into his contract, he probably wouldn’t talk to the press at all.

That sets the tone for the rest of the team. Under Tom Renney, the Ranger room was the easiest beat to ever work. Stories would write themselves as loquacious players would fill notebooks and tape recorders.

Now, things seem to have changed as many a Ranger picks and chooses his words carefully as not to tick off the guy in charge.

Yet, this is not the most damning statement about the team. Rather it’s the personnel decisions that Tortorella influenced on Glen Sather. If Renney was still the coach, both Blair Betts and Colton Orr would probably have been re-signed and Donald Brashear would be stealing someone else’s money.

Then there’s the defense, filled with either over the hill veterans and untested youngsters. There’s no shame in going with youth, but the system would have to augment the talent. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen on the Rangers, where too many mental errors occur on the blue line, causing too much strain on Henrik Lundqvist.

Plus you should have a mentoring program in place where the veterans teach the rookies. Unfortunately, both Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival are ill-equipped in that department, so Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy, and Marc Staal have to learn on the fly.

At  forward, there are also problems as Ryan Callahan, and Brandon Dubinsky have not grown into top six forwards, some would say they have taken steps back this season.  Too much early season reliance on Marian Gaborik has taken a toll on the Rangers leading scorer and none of the younger players have stepped up.

Now, Drury is not immune to any of this either. During large stretches this season the captain has vanished on the ice and his skills have eroded over the past two years. On a team filled with talent, the center probably would flourish, but as a main cog, he seems to struggle.

As captain, Drury seems to be a very quiet leader, which is not what this team seems to need, but it seems Mark Messier or Brendan Shanahan couldn’t get through to these guys now either.

The Rangers have 12 games left in the season and based on tonight’s loss there doesn’t seem to be an urgency on the ice. Each game now is a playoff game for this squad and if the Rangers don’t grow up, as Drury said, then the Garden will be dark come April.

And that would be a first in five years and a very disappoint first full year for Tortorella.

John Tortorella

Chris Drury

Henrik Lundqvist

Jason Arnott

Dan Ellis

Notes:

POST-GAME QUOTES

John Tortorella on the team…

“When you are trying to crawl out of a hole and trying to gain some consistency in your game, your structure of your team concept and your discipline, at all times, at this time of year, is so important.  We are not good enough not to be dead on with that stuff there.”

Henrik Lundqvist on his play…

“I felt good.  There were a lot of breakaways tonight.  They created a lot around the net.  I knew, going into the game, I can’t afford any mistakes.  I think the D played really well around the net.  It is really tough.  We play as good as we can in our end, still let up a couple of breakaways, but I still think we played pretty good in our end.  It comes down to scoring.  You can see how you feed off of a goal.  As you score we get energy and some speed but then they score and we lose that energy a little bit.”

Chris Drury on the team…

“We have just been trying to play the right way. We have been playing the right way for the most part. It’s just such a fine line in this League, the smallest little mistake, whether it’s a penalty or just not finishing a great chance, or just the bounce of the puck can cost you the game and can get you spinning in the wrong direction.”

For more information contact Bob Trainor at trainorcomm@gmail.com.

“It feels great scoring eight goals,” said forward Vinny Prospal, who was one of eight Blueshirts to light the lamp. “The Lightning played well last night against Carolina, they have a dangerous hockey team, they have a lot of defense. So it feels great that we were able to do right from the start – shut them down and run up the score.”

All in all, the goals went to all the secondary scoring guys not named Marion Gaborik.  Brandon Dubinsky, Prospal, Chris Drury, Dan Girardi, Enver Lisin, Marc Staal, Aaron Voros, and Christopher Higgins, respectively lit the lamp, as the Rangers fought for the puck right from the start of the match, almost a continuation of Sunday night’s 6-2 win over the Canadiens.

“We are trying to stay consistent out there,” said coach John Tortorella. “We are trying to stay consistent with finishing checks and again defending the proper way. I though the first period both teams were giving up chances left and right and we are fortunate to score a few goals.”

Actually the game was quite tight in the first. After going up 2-0, Vinny Lecavalier was able to cut the lead in half at 17:21, but 1:12 later, Drury came up with his tally and it was all Rangers after that.

And the onslaught continued in the second and the third as the Ranger forecheck strangled the Lightning, keeping them pinned into their own zone for large portions of the period.

“Sometimes you get a stick on the puck where maybe a couple a weeks (ago) you weren’t getting your stick on the puck,” Tortorella said. “You end up scoring a few goals the prior game, you feel more confident about it. I am not going to sit and tell you an explanation why we are scoring goals here. It’s a good thing. We are continuing to try to play our game. The important thing was also playing away from the puck.”

So the Rangers will now continue onto Philly for a game on Thursday, as the Blueshirts continue to fight on in the east.

As for the Lightning, well, they will go back to the best place they have been all day.

“The only thing we did today was get on the bus on time,” said Tampa Bay coach Rick Tocchet. “The bus driver was the best thing we had.”

Notes:

• The first time New York tallied six-or-more goals in back-to-back games since the 2006-07 season (Mar. 31 at Philadelphia, 6-4; Apr. 1 vs. Toronto, 7-2); the last time the Blueshirts notched six-or-more goals in back-to-back home games was Nov. 12, 2003 vs. Pittsburgh (6-2) and Nov. 23, 2003 vs. Ottawa (6-2).
• New York have now posted a record of 24-19-7 (55 pts.) overall and 12-11-4 (28 pts.) at home this season; the Rangers have now tallied a point in 14 of their last 17 games (10-3-4).
• New York notched three goals in the opening frame tonight, marking the third straight period the Rangers tallied three goals in a period following three-goal performances in the second and third periods of Sunday’s 6-2 win vs. Montreal; it is the first time since the 1998-99 season the Rangers accomplished the feat (third period of a 6-6 tie on Nov. 17 at Toronto and all three periods of a 10-2 win on Nov. 10 at Tampa Bay). *Statistic courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau
• The Rangers had eight different goal scorers and 16 different players register at least one point; the last time the Rangers had eight players score a goal in one game was a 10-5 win on Dec. 13, 1992 vs. Montreal;  New York’s 16 players with at least one point ties the franchise record for a single game, accomplished twice before – Oct. 25, 1984 at New Jersey (W, 11-2) and Feb. 17, 1985 vs. the NY Islanders (W, 9-3). *Statistic courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau

Don’t just take a the word of a humble reporter, listen to The King.

“This one hurts,” said “The King” Henrik Lundqvist. “The way we played in the third, we deserved at least a tie game, if not a win. I just couldn’t come up with a big save at the end. It’s a little frustrating. It’s just a tough one to lose.”

The team skated hard in this one but just couldn’t get the secondary scoring. Even with two goals from Marian Gaborik, the Rangers ended up on the losing end of a 4-2 stick to the Washington Capitals.

“I thought, for most of the game there, we played,” said coach John Tortorella.  “Obviously our biggest weakness is that we are not getting any secondary scoring.  We played in surges at times.  We held them to 11, 12 scoring chances.  We just aren’t creating enough with our secondary scoring.”

That’s the problem with the Rangers these days. Outside of Gaborik, there’s no other goals coming from the club and with a good team like Capitals, that’s just not enough. With two of Rangers top centers (Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky) on the shelf, others need to step up for the Rangers for them to be successful.

“I think a lot of things stem from getting the puck in their zone,” said defenseman Wade Redden, who was beaten on Washington’s winning goal by Matt Bradley. “It starts from our end, where we get good passes, chip it in and forecheck.  It is not just shots, it is creating momentum. I think we just have to rely on the simple little plays to create chances for ourselves.”

Fighting for pucks and driving to the net is one of the biggest sins for these Rangers. Outside of when No. 10 is on the ice, the team plays back and conservative, which is not good for successful hockey, especially when you are not playing a defensive system.

Yet on the bright side, there is Gaborik, who now has 15 goals on the season and is showing the Garden Faithful why he is the best goal scorer since Jaromir Jagr took the league by storm after the lockout.

“He gets the puck and makes things happen,” Redden said. “That’s a big part of our offense. Our power play has been clicking pretty good. He finds the spots on the ice and makes things happen. He is big for us.”

Garborik scored in the 1:16 into the game and then beat Semyon Varlamov 8:26 into the third on the power play to tie the match. Yet, the firepower of the Capitals behind Alex Ovechkin, proved too much.

“We’ve got to capitalize and try and score on those hardworking, grinding plays,” Gaborik said. “We just have to cut down on taking penalties and go from there. We didn’t generate a lot of shots, that was a problem there. We came back in the third, we had some good chances down low and we need to keep the puck down low more often.”

“You have to be positive and you have to think you’ll turn this around,” Lundqvist said. “We had a big win the other night and we just need to have a couple in a row and get going. Now we’re back to square one again. We have a couple of days off between games and we have to make sure we’re ready for the next one.”

He practiced and will be in goal tonight as the Rangers take on the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

“It was only me and I’m fine,” he said with a grin. “There are just a few scratches on the car. It could have been worse.”

Sure, but Lundqvist wasn’t taking any chances. Going to the Coliseum today, Lundqvist took car service.

***

Not as fortunate as Lundqvist, Marian Gaborik is out for tonight’s game with a lower leg injury. He will be replaced on the roster by P.A. Partenteau.

Yet, the rookie called up from Hartford won’t replace Gaborik’s top of the standings scoring. Coach John Tortorella expects the rest of the team to step up with players like Chris Higgins, Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan taking more minutes, and hopefully get out their scoring slumps.

“On the power play, we’re going to have to put someone in there,” Tortorella said. “Obviously we’re gonna miss him.”

There’s no word on when Gaborik will skate again or if he will play on Friday in Minnesota against his old team, the Wild.

***

With the World Series starting tonight, the Rangers chirped with some predictions. Obviously most of the team predicted the Yankees, especially Yankee fans Chris Drury and Matt Gilroy, both of whom said Yankees in six.

Other predictions Henrik Lundqvist, PA Parenteau, and Michael Del Zotto said Yankees in 6. Enver Lisin said the Yankees, although he also said he roots for the Dallas Cowboys.

Going against type, Aaron Voros went with the Jimmy Rollins prediction of Phillies in 5 and Red Sox fan Brian Boyle said Phillies in 6, because I can bring myself to pull for the Yankees.”

Yes all good things must come to an end and the Rangers seven game winning streak crashed down with a penalty filled 7-3 defeat to the San Jose Sharks.

“We were just in the penalty box and they had power plays and that’s where the momentum swung,” said forward Vinny Prospal. “We have been talking about this for some time…about the penalties. If you look at [the Sharks] personnel, this is a team that has a lot of skilled players that capitalize on the power plays and that is what happened tonight.”

All in all the Sharks were 2-7 on the power play, as opposed to the Rangers who were just 1-3 on the man advantage. But the extra pressure on Stephen Valiquette, who had to face five power plays, was just too much, especially against a powerful team in San Jose. Valiquette’s five goals on 18 shots performance was enough to get hi a seat for the third and a cold Henrik Lundqvist was just 2-12.

Valiquette to his credit thought the first San Jose goal – a 2-on-1 by Dany Heatley – the last one he gave up, Devin Setogchi’s second goal of the night, were blatantly his fault and took the blame himself.

“We do 2-on-1s all the time in practice, and I should have gotten that one,” Valiquette said. “It may have had a snowball effect in a negative way for us. In understand Henrik and I have to make the big saves and keep the ball rolling.”

All-in-all, the Sharks scored six unanswered goals on Valiquette and Lundqvist, after the Rangers went up 2-0 in the first on goals by Chris Drury and Michael Del Zotto. San Jose then dominated the last two periods of the game, mainly due to the penalties, which killed any Ranger momentum. By the time Enver Lisin was able to light the lamp in the third to make it 6-3, it was just too little too late.

Yet with every bad loss, there is opportunity and Tortorella will be looking at the tape to make some changes.

“We have things to work on,” he said. “The first two periods weren’t as bad what the score was at that point. I don’t think we were terrible. They scored some goals and we didn’t. Started off fine, but we put ourselves in the penalty problem.

“I guess if the stop taking them, they are going to lose some ice time along the way here. You talk about momentum swings and things like that…it just wrecks the flow of the game. And the only hammer we have as coaches is ice time.”

No one knows, yet if anyone will lose time this for this Thursday’s game against the Devils, but the coach has dropped the gauntlet.

Notes: The Rangers converted one of three power play opportunities to extend their streak to seven games (11-30, 36.7%) with at least one goal on the man advantage…Rangers captain Chris Drury opened the game’s scoring at 7:17 of the first period, while skating in his 800th career NHL contest…Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto tallied a power play goal and registered four shots in 15:54 of icetime; entering the contest, he was one of only four rookie defensemen in the last 20 years to score at least eight points in his team’s first eight games of the season (Rob Blake – 10, Alexei Zhitnik – 9, and Matt Carle – 8); Del Zotto currently leads all NHL rookies in goals (four) and points (nine) and is tied for second in assists (five), and he leads all league defensemen in points, tied for the lead in defensemen goals and tied for seventh in defensemen assists.

The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t know what hit them.

So much so that the Blueshirts scored four third period goals, including two by Sean Avery, to lead the team to a 7-2 laugher.

“We came out and had a good first period. I think with any team you get that comfortable mindset,” Avery said. “Torts told us before the game, great teams are the teams that stay consistent no matter what the score is or who you are playing. I think we pulled our socks up and came out and had a good third.”

Besides the two by Avery, Dan Girardi scored two and Wade Redden had a goal with two assists. As the Rangers were in control for almost the whole game.

Yet, that’s what good teams do against inferior opponents. Much like a mismatched college football game, John Tortorella’s team ran up the score and kept the pressure going, even with the game pretty much in hand. The Rangers were able to outstate their opponents due to being well conditioned, especially after the really tough training camp the coach put his team through.

“We have had some good third periods and we had another one tonight and I think the conditioning had something to do with it,” Tortorella said. “That is an important part, finishing the game. We felt we were fortunate, Hank made some good saves there in the second. We just wanted to get back on the attack and try to play in their end zone. I don’t know if it is conditioning related but we had another good third period so that is good news.”
“Some of that is going through the hard camp we went through,” said Rangers captain Chris Drury. “You don’t go through a hard camp and come out on the other side as mentally and physically demanding as it was, it forces you to come together. You can’t do it alone.”

And that’s the difference in these Rangers, they don’t rely upon just a few guys. Everyone gets involved. Ten different Rangers had points in last night’s match coming from forwards and defensemen. No matter who is on the ice, the team always feels they have a chance to score.

Part of that is the system Tortorella put in place, which emphasizes the backliners joining into the play when they see a chance. As a result Girardi and Redden had three of the seven goals, and since the beginning of the season, all of the defensemen have gotten involved, while also improving on keeping pucks out of the net.

“Our defensive game actually improved,” said Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, who had 27 saves on the night. “It is tougher for teams to create scoring chances, I think, when we stay aggressive, when we play the way we want to play. We can see that already last year when Torts came in and we changed our style of play. It is tougher for teams to create chances. When we play the way we play, we are great offensively and defensively. It has been good. They have done a great job the last couple of games.”

So much so that the Rangers are on a roll and look very tough to beat right now.

Notes: The main event happened at 10:18 of the night when former Ranger enforcer Colton Orr met current tough guy Donald Brashear. The fight went to the judges and it came out to be a draw…The last time the Rangers scored seven goals was back on April 1, 2007 (no fooling) also against the Toronto Maple Leafs…The Blueshirts complete their three game home stand on Wednesday as the team takes on the Los Angeles Kings.

It was supposed to be Jaromir Jagr, but he was never the same after his shoulder was dislocated in the 2006 playoffs. And Scott Gomez never clicked with anyone he played with on his line.

Chris Drury was supposed to be clutch, but the drain of being a sniper was never his forte.

The Rangers needed a scorer. Everyone knew it. And it took a couple of years for general manager Glen Sather to find one.

And now Marian Gaborik is paying instant dividends.

Take last night’s 4-3 win in Washington. After Washington tied the game on a very bad let-in by Henrik Lundqvist and then went ahead on a power play goal, the Blueshirts looked sunk.

But enter Gaborik, the play-maker, who scored two to give the Rangers two – points, that is.

“That’s what makes players like him so special,” Drury said, as reported by Newsday. “They can change the game on one shot and they can win a game on two plays and two shots.”

Those two shots came almost immediately. Just 18 seconds after the Capitals went up on Niklas Backstom’s tally, Gaborik came in with slap shot past Jose Theodore. And then beat the Washington netminder 2:33 later with the gamewinner.

“That’s a goal-scorer for you,” Henrik Lundqvist said to reporters. “That’s why we signed him.

“I owe him dinner”

Many heads shook when the Rangers dished out $37.5 million over five years for the oft-injured Wild star. Was this just another Blueshirt blunder or could Gaborik become the player the team craved.

“I don’t think he was playing all that great up until that point, but that’s the difference when you have this type of player, a gamebreaker – at a key time he ends up producing,” said coach John Tortorella to reporters. “That’s what he has to be about.”

Sure it’s only been four games into the season, but Gaborik looks right at home on Broadway. His skills have translated into Tortorella’s system and has paid immediate dividends.

Yet, his health is still a concern. The Rangers were smart to keep him out the first week of camp, just in case and then used him sparingly in the games he did play. Now the 27 year-old looks like he’s on his way to his best season, after missing most of 2008-09 with a hip injury.

And with that type of top line, Lundqvist can make all the mistakes he wants, because he knows, that Garborik will be there to back him up.

No it was just coincidence the opening of the NHL season happened on a chilly night and what better way for the New York Rangers to debut than to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins hoist the Stanley Cup one more time.

A tough match-up, which gave the Blueshirts a barometer on how far they need to go, went pretty much as expected. Although they competed and the the scoring came from the right places, the Pens ultimately prevailed, 3-2.

“It just feels good to have the first game over with,” said netminder Henrik Lundqvist to reporters, who stopped 28 shots on the night. “It’s been a long week just practicing, just wanting to get going. The result is not what we were looking for, but still, we did a lot of good things. Third period, we came back pretty good.”

The Rangers never led in the match after Evgeni Malkin put the Pens on the board, just 7:48 into the first. A power play goal, showed the true power of the Stanley Cup Champs.

Yet, the Rangers showed resilience and tied the match about four minutes later, when Chris Higgins down low took a shot from the corner at Marc-Andre Fluery (25 saves), which was tipped in by captain Chris Drury.

Ultimately, though, the game was lost in the second when the Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy scored 1:08 apart. It was just too much for the Blueshirts to overcome.

“That third goal was a very important goal in the game, and I think we just gave it to them,” said coach John Tortorella to reporters in Pittsburgh. “We’re breaking out of our end zone, we lose the puck, we’re not strong on the puck, point shot goes in. That put us in a hole.”

And one that became insurmountable. Although Marian Gaborik cut the Penguin lead in half, the Rangers couldn’t overcome that lead.

Yet, don’t fret the Rangers return to a more comfortable atmosphere tonight as they take on the Ottawa Senators in their home opener.

“I’m looking forward to the home opener at the Garden,” Lundqvist said to reporters. “It should be a different atmosphere.”

Notes: Michael Del Zotto became the first 19 year-old to make his Rangers debut on the blue line since Brian Leetch in 1988…Matt Gilroy also made his NHL debut. The 25 year-old was plus-2 in 19:58.

You might remember that one when the Ranger’s GM scrambled to fill his team with Czechs, just to keep Jaromir Jagr, his one superstar, happy. That worked with the Rangers making the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

But since then…Uggh.

The next off-season, Sather signed Matt Cullen, Aaron Ward, and Brendan Shanahan. Sure, Shanny worked out ,but he solicited the Rangers, not the other way around. While Cullen was gone the next season and Ward turned out to be a disaster, coming into camp out of shape and getting into arguments with Jagr.

Then came the signings of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury the following year. If you listen to Sather you can hear him admitting his mistake.

“If you perform up to expectations, play hard every day, game in and game out and be productive, there’s a chance you’ll never be traded,” Sather said.

Gomez was shipped to Montreal on Tuesday.

And then we had last off-season with the bad signings of Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival and Markus Naslund. We all saw how that turned out.

So now with the Rangers signing Marian Gaborik to a five year contract worth $7.5 million a year, you can see where the trepidation comes from. It looks good on paper, but with Sather’s track record in the free agent market it’s hard to get excited.

If healthy, Gaborik gives the Rangers the sniper they needed since Jagr. He’s scored over 30 goals in five of his eight seasons in Minnesota, including 42 goals in 2007-08. But last year was an injury riddled season with hip surgery in January limited him to 17 games last year.

“His health is fine,” Sather kept repeating last night in a conference call. “He came back and played the last (11) games last season, and it hasn’t bothered him since.”

Sorry if I don’t share Sather’s optimism, but with his spotty track record, the Rangers general manager will have to show me proof before I start believing. Each off-season you think the team has enough to make it to the next level, but the season always ends in disappointment.

For this off-season to be a success, Gaborik and Chris Higgins – acquired for Gomez on Tuesday – need to play healthy seasons, while Donald Brashear, who was signed earlier yesterday, needs to play a more controlled game, meaning no suspensions and no stupid penalties.

Otherwise this off-season will be just another typical Ranger July. It looks great on paper, but that all changes when the games are played.