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.

Finally after a day of waiting, Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust are Rangers, while the team bids goodbuy to Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins.

No matter how Jokinen meshes with Marian Gaborik, this is simply a good trade for the Rangers. They gave up nothing, while getting the cap flexibility for next season if their new No. 1 center leaves as a free agent.

These are the trades general manager Glen Sather needs to make. The Rangers can’t give up their young talent, as that’s the future of the organization, so he has to be nimble and use the bad fits in moves to make the team better.

In this trade, Sather just moved two very disappointing parts, including one that didn’t want to be in New York, and got himself a rental, which could make a huge impact this season. Coach John Tortorella knows Jokinen from his years in Tampa, as the new Ranger was the No. 1 option on the rival Florida Panthers. If anyone knows the enigmatic ex-Islander, it’s Torts. And if there’s a fit with Gaborik, the No. 1 line with Vinny Prospal on the wing, gives the Blueshirts a great scoring combination.

And if there isn’t a fit, then the No. 2 line may get a whole lot better, because there will be some secondary scoring going on, something that has been missing for most of the season.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the Rangers are a perfect team, far from it. It still needs to shed some really bad contracts in Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival and Donald Brashear, but it’s a start, and one that could be a sign of things to come.

Although this looks like a win-win, of course this could go south. No one thought getting Higgins and Kotalik were bad moves over the summer. In fact, this space lauded the arrival of the Smithtown, NY native, but it was not meant to be.

It’s not easy playing in your hometown, which is something Higgins learned very quickly in New York and Kotalik just never fit in with Tortorella, something not many can do. Yet, neither player were life long Rangers, just some spare parts in a greater scheme of things.

Yet, the young players are a different story. Sather must keep his young talent, since that’s the way the organization grows long term. Brandon Dubinsky still needs to grow and Ryan Callahan can improve as well. On the blue line, three young talents in Marc Staal, Michael Del Zotto, and Matt Gilroy are the future. Sure they make their mistakes, but their errors are far less glaring then Redden’s or Rozsival’s.

Maybe in the next month, Sather will be able to move another player or two. It will take a miracle to get rid of Redden’s bloated contract and Brashear appears to found his life in the Blue Seats with the addition of Prust, but sometimes things happen. Who would have thought Scoot Gomez would have been traded after last season or Jokinen and Prust come to New York for a couple of spare parts.

Things happen. And now the Rangers are better for it.

And you know what eighth place means – playoffs.

“Yeah you win a few games during the week,” said Christopher Higgins, “and you move up three places in the standings.”

Even though the 2009 portion of the season, wasn’t up to Hoyle, John Tortorella’s team is, at least, treading water and if the Rangers can pull off more wins like tonight’s 3-2 comebacker against the Bruins, then maybe there will be a postseason in the picture in 2010.

The Rangers fought hard off the puck. They took the body to the board, and the goals they scored came from the sources the team hoped would become their secondary scorers after Marian Gaborik.

First, Ales Kotalik scored his first goal in almost two months when he rifled one in from the point on the power play at 9:58 of the first. And Erik Christensen was able to score his first at the Garden at 7:34 of the second when Michael Del Zotto was able to shoot one down the ice to Brandon Dubinsky, who hit Christensen to knock it past Tuukka Rask, who stopped 32 on the night.

“It was the first goal I ever scored in this building,” Christensen said. “It has been fun playing these last few games with [Brandon Dubinsky] and Gaborik. It’s a big boost to the confidence and we had a perfect breakout there.

“It was a perfect play by Dubi, because he brought the defense in. It was electrifying.”

What was even more electrifying was Higgins gamewinner. After the Rangers gave up the lead in less than a minute and a half late in the third on a shorthander by Matt Hunwick and an even strength tally from Blake Wheeler, the scoring-scarce Higgins was able to poke one past Rask for his first Garden goal since he opened MSG after the lockout as a member of the Canadiens back on October 6, 2005 in the Rangers 4-3 overtime loss to the Habs.

“Points have been difficult to come by for guys around here, including myself, so to be able to contribute feels good,” Higgins said. “It was my first goal here since my first game with the Canadiens, so it’s been a while.”

And it’s been some time since the Rangers looked this good. Henrik Lundqvist was his usual self stopping 26, although he probably would want the two that went in back. Yet, with his team scoring three, the netminder  felt good about his chances.

“When we score three goals, we are going to have a good chance, no question,” Lundqvist said. “We had some guys, who haven’t been scoring for awhile, step up scoring some big goals. That is huge, because Gabby can’t score them all. It’s a crucial tie right now. It’s a big month. It is important to get everyone going.”

Take it out of each of their paychecks because a game like this is just unacceptable.

Sure, after the game, each Ranger was saying how their play was a disgrace, but the loyal Garden fans deserve more from this. If the Rangers don’t want to compete at home, the fans need something for their efforts.

And Giant-like apologies just won’t do it.

“There was nothing good about the game,” said center Brandon Dubinsky. “I’m not going to hide under a rock, though.”

Fine, they all were there in the dressing room after the match fielding answers to the questions. Each Ranger, though, has a certain responsibility to come in and play hard every night, especially at home. They owe the fans that. To do any less is a disgrace to the uniform they wear and tarnishes every great who wore the Ranger sweater since 1926.

“Everyone had a bad game on the same night,” Christopher Higgins said when asked about the game, but this is more than that, you have to wonder why the Rangers performed like this, especially after the mockery of a game just two weeks ago against the Islanders.

After that game, John Tortorella was livid, but tonight was more reserved.

“If we have to go with a coach losing his mind making an idiot out of himself every five games then we are beating our heads against the wall,” Tortorella said. “It can’t be that way. We have to find some consistency. I think we played pretty well Islander game.

“Guys, I am being honest with you, I don’t have an answer on why we played the game tonight the way we did. I thought we practiced well, I thought we got enough rest and they were in good spirits. I just don’t know why.”

Neither do the 18,200 fans, all of whom deserve their money back. At least they got treated to the NHL debut of Chad Johnson, the 23 year-old backup goalie, who stopped 17 of 20 shots on the night after coming in for Henrik Lundqvist to start the second period.  Although Simon Gagne was able to score on the first shot Johnson faced, thanks to a turnover by Dubinsky, the rookie hung in there.

“I thought he settled in, made some good saves,” Tortorella said. “It’s a tough position for a kid to come into his first game into this storm or whatever you call it.”

Fortunately the Rangers are able to play tomorrow, so they won’t have to sit and mull over this game. And maybe they can ring out this bad 2009 with some sort of win and maybe put this game behind them.

And maybe the fans will forget this game too.

Whatever it is, though, this is a different man than the one who lashed into his team last week for lack of hustle against the New York Islanders.

“I didn’t say too much to the team about it,” the coach said. “They are professional athletes and they know what went on here prior. We haven’t won consistently here. You want to win on the road, but you are not going to get anywhere if you don’t establish yourself at home.”

And tonight the Rangers finally won at home with a very good 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers.

“I am thinking I am playing really well, but the guys in front of me are playing really, really well,” said goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who had 33 saves. “They are really making a difference.”

Actually what worked was the fear of Torts. After lashing out at his team last week and then benching Ales Kotalik and Wade Redden for two games, the Rangers responded with impressive wins on the Island, Philadelphia, and in Carolina. They are hustling, playing strong off the puck, and taking chance.

More importantly, they are winning games they would have lost two weeks ago.

“I think it comes from being embarrassed from that night against the Islanders,” said Vinny Prospal, who scored two goals in tonight’s match. “We had a team meeting and there were things that were said, that needs to be changed or there may be changes in the locker room.

“We have been playing more disciplined hockey and we have been scoring a little more.”

Now, the benchings and rippings are classic Tortorella tactics. Prospal knows that, as he has seen it in Tampa when “The Paper Italian” ran that club.

“I have seen it a few years ago in some other players,” Prospal said. “Torts, you always know him very well. He always tells the players to step up and play better. It’s all business and he doesn’t mean it in a personal way. It’s all hockey to him.”

And since last Wednesday, the Rangers have been playing nothing but sharp, crisp, games with many of the players stepping up in key spots.

Chris Drury has three goals in the last four – including the game tier in the first period – after Tortorella moved him down in the lineup. The coach said he feels the pressure is off his captain, which allows No. 23 to play “within himself.”

And Kotalik seems to be playing sharper hockey after getting two games rest. Yet, that’s the response Tortorella wanted from his players when he challenged them last week.

“I think we get strong play, strong goaltending, and big goals at key times,” said Marian Gaborik, who scored a beauty breakaway from a sharp angle in the third period off Tomas Vokoun for his lead leading 26^th goal of the season. “I think we’re playing defensively better and we come away with a key offensive or defensive play at key times.”

And that’s what Tortorella was looking for. Look, the Rangers will not be this good every night and there will be some stink bombs out there, but there’s still time for the team to turn the season around. If the Blueshirts can continue with the effort, then they should be fine going into 2010.

And Tortorella should keep his happy disposition up.

Last night’s game against the Islanders was a call to arms for the Rangers. Are they are a team or are they just a collection of overpaid veterans just looking to collect their check?

After benching Wade Redden and Ales Kotalik, the Rangers responded and thanks to an ill advised Islander starting of a very tired Dwayne Roloson, who gave up three goals on the Rangers first five shots in their eventual 5-2 win.

“I think, collectively, as a team, we responded well and everybody realized what they had to do,” right wing Ryan Callahan, who scored two goals in the match, said. “I think it’s a little bit of both. Obviously, Hank is the backbone of this team and he made some key saves.”

Lundqvist made sure the Rangers had a chance as he stopped the Islander onslaught during the first 10 minutes of the game when the Isles outshot the Rangers 10-1. Being up for the challenge, Lundqvist kept the Rangers in the match as his teammates got their legs.

“It’s happened a lot of times in this building,” Lundqvist said. “They come out flying and we have a tough time settling in. It was important for me personally and for the team to stay in there. I don’t know how we had the lead after the first period, but we did.”

But a win is a win and the Rangers will now move forward with maybe with a new found lease on life. There’s no word on Redden and Kotalik, both of who sat in the press box for the match. After a shouting match between the defenseman and coach John Tortorella, Redden was worked out by assistant coach Mike Sullivan and then expressed his displeasure to the media.

“Not real pleased about it, honestly,” Redden said.  “To be singled out – I know the team’s going through struggles and everyone’s got to be better.  The fact that I’m sitting out – I mean, I’m not real happy about it.”

Redden acted like he was losing money here, but let’s remember his $39 million contract will still be paid even if he’s sitting on the bench. And for him to be “singled out” is a joke, because he’s been playing this way for a year and a half.

Yet, you have to blame Sather for that signing, yet he will still get paid as well. Even though some morning show commentators were saying he was set to get canned, the Rangers president’s job is safe for now.

And you can look for Tortorella to go as well, but at least the coach has abandoned his old offense first mantra and started to do some neutral zone trapping over the past two weeks.

So, all is well for one night at least as the Rangers try to save the season. But is this just one night or a start of something big?

We will soon find out.

Yet, in less than a year into the John Tortorella regime, the Rangers stand at 14-15-2.

Say what you want about the Rangers abrasive coach, but the fact is that record is not getting the job done. Renney, for all his flaws, knew how to win on Broadway, something many a good coach could not do.

Maybe, we should add Tortorella to that list. He came here with a reputation as the Anti-Renney, an offensive coach, who is as abrasive and outspoken as he is an up-tempo genius. But now he has a team that just can’t score any goals. Just look at the numbers. In the last 19 games dating back to Oct. 28th, 15 times the Rangers scored two goals or fewer.

And, tonight was no exception with the Rangers scoring just two goals in their 3-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at Madison Square Garden.

“Bottom line, we know we have to win,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist. “We are doing a lot of good things and the work ethic is definitely there. We work really hard. We just come up short a lot of nights. I don’t know what else to say.”

To help Lundqvist out here, the Rangers come up short because they are in an offensive system that doesn’t score. Too many times their all-world goaltender is left naked out there by a very suspect defense filled with two overpriced and underperforming veterans and a bunch of youngsters, who are just learning.  Under Renney this worked, because the trapping system masked defensive deficiencies, but they are now exposed under Tortorella.

And that is where the problem just starts. Every night it’s the same story and over the past few weeks changes started to happen. But frankly, they are the wrong ones. Was it really Stephen Valliquette’s fault that the Rangers are playing so poorly? And why was Matt Gilroy sent down and not Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival?

Tortorella was brought in because Renney was considered too nice to bench or demote any of his high priced veterans., but we have failed to see the tough love given to players like Rozsival, Redden, Chris Drury, or Christopher Higgins, all of whom could use a game or two sitting in the stands and maybe one or two of them should be shown the Hartford shuttle. Yet all are enjoying NHL minutes and NHL meal money on an everyday bases.

Earlier in the year, Tortorella was shocked out the press’s reaction when it comes to benchings, saying it’s “treated like crucifixions” here. But how can anyone take his no-nonsense seriously when he refuses to sit down some of his veteran. His rules seem to just be for the players he can push around and not the ones who deserve it.  But what do you expect from a coach who benched his best agitator in the playoffs last year, only to make a fool out of himself by squirting a bottle on a few fans.

Is there time to turn this around? Of course. But it also means the team needs a personality transplant. They need to bare down and the veterans need to step up and lead this club, or John Tortorella’s Rangers are destined to become a failure, like many other successful coaches when they came to Broadway.

The Blueshirts played hard last night, especially in the third period, but John Tortorella’s crew just couldn’t score on the power play, as they went 0-5 on the night, including an 0-3 in the third period.

“Well we can say it is unfair…whatever,” Tortorella said. “We just came away empty.  I thought it was important tonight that we get consecutive games.  I thought we played two good games.  You just want to get something out of it, at least a point out of it but we didn’t.  We just have to fight through it.  We fought through it after a shaky start.  We will just get back at it.”

You probably have heard this story before. This is a team that’s built for offense, but only has one scorer, and since they sacrifice the defensive end, Henrik Lundqvist is left naked out there in the crease.

And last night’s game personified that problem. Although the team played very hard, the Red Wings were determined to keep Marion Gaborik off the board, leaving it in the hands of the rest of the Rangers, who could only muster a goal by Brian Boyle in the first period.

Without any other scoring, the team was left fighting for opportunities. Sean Avery missed an open net in the third and Ryan Callahan was stopped on a penalty shot.

“I thought I had him,” Callahan said. “I did the move the way I wanted to, but he just came up with a toe save.”

Now, they did look better in the past two games on defense, allowing Lundqvist to do his job.

“ I like the way we play in our own zone,” Lundqvist said.  “It feels like we are more in control and we are not running around too much and guys are doing a good job with that.  We have calmed down a little bit.  You don’t feel like you have to cover up for anyone else.  They are doing a good job coming back.  That is a good thing and something we will keep on doing.  We played well enough in our zone and in the defensive zone to win this game.”

But these aren’t Tom Renney’s Rangers who are built to keep goals off the board; this is Tortorella’s team, which is failing to come through in the clutch.

And that’s the story this year. Too many times the team has failed to come through in the clutch, just drifting along through the first two months of the season hoping for some consistency.

And before you ask, Marian Gaborik only had two.

The Rangers finally broke out of the scoring drought with a 7-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Goal after goal, the team looked sharp, which is precisely the team needed.

“We had a good forecheck and we kept playing in their zone which was important,” said Gaborik, who also had two assists to go along with his two goals. “Our defensive side of the game was good. We’re talking about having the third guy coming back and being responsible defensively and I think we did that.  It has to carry over on the road. We haven’t had a long trip in a while so we have to build on this and just go from here.”

The welcomed relief came after a well timed time out called by coach John Tortorella. After the Blue Jackets went up 2-0 at 9:31 of the first period, the team got a break.

“It was good to have a break, that is for sure,” said goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. “I think the first goal was huge.  To get that in the first period and not go in here trailing 3-0.  We needed some positive energy and we got that from [Marian Gaborik].  After that, you could see how we got confidence.”

After No. 10 put the Rangers on the board, the secondary scoring happened. First Artim Anisimov scored followed by Michael Del Zotto to give the Rangers the lead in first 3-2.

Then in the second the goals kept coming. Sean Avery scored at 6:12 to chase Steve Mason, and his replacement Mathieu Garon came in with a tank of gas and a book of matches.

Less than a minute later, Avery scored again, followed by Gaborik after another 20 seconds, to make it 6-2.

“The biggest thing was coming back from a two goal deficit,” said Avery. “I think regardless of what the score was, coming back and winning a game after you’re losing 2-0 us big for a team that is struggling. I hope it puts everybody around here in a good mood.”

Matt Gilroy capped the Ranger scoring later that period with beautiful breakaway beating Garon.

Even with the seven goals, Columbus was able to make it close with a goal late in the second and one in the third.

“Do you think we were going to score seven goals tonight?” Tortorella said. “Who knows how this happens. When you go through some tough times, you need to stick with it. We got a bunch of breaks and their goaltending wasn’t that great. You can’t figure it.”

The Rangers now go on a three game road trip that includes both Florida destinations and Pittsburgh before coming home next day to Madison Square Garden.

Notes: After allowing the game’s first two goals, New York tallied seven straight from 11:29 of the first period to 12:47 of the second, marking the first time the Rangers tallied seven unanswered goals since a 7-0 victory against Boston on Mar. 7, 2009; the Blueshirts tallied three goals in a 71-second span in the second period…Marian Gaborik led all skaters with four points (two goals and two assists) to extend his point streak to seven games (seven goals and 13 points); he also tied for the game-high with a plus-three rating…Sean Avery notched two goals in 51 seconds, including one power play tally and the game-winning goal; it was his second multi-goal effort on the season and 10th of his career.