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.

Brandon Dubinsky’s remarkable tiebreaking goal with 8:17 left held up as the winner making a winner of Henrik Lundqvist, who was very strong stopping all 13 of Ovechkin’s shots on his way to 32 saves in easily outperforming a shaky Jose Theodore, who permitted four goals on just 21 shots.

Somehow, the Rangers won despite not having the puck for large portions with a relentless Caps attack coming at them in waves. They prevailed even though the dangerous host had seven power plays converting twice including Alexander Semin’s tying marker 1:42 into the third that rallied Washington back from a 3-1 deficit.

If John Tortorella’s club was one of the lowest scoring offenses entering the 16-team tournament, it never showed as they instead persevered by getting the kind of opportunist goalscoring needed to pull the upset. While the Blueshirts got big nights from Scott Gomez (goal, 2 assists), Nik Antropov (PPG, A), penalty prone Markus Naslund (PPG, A, 3 minor penalties), Dubinsky and constant Ryan Callahan (2 SOG, 2 goalposts, game best 7 hits, 1 huge blocked shot), their meal ticket Lundqvist made big save after big save keeping the Caps off the board early in spite of seeing 14 of 18 shots in the first. His steady play allowed the Rangers to settle down and get the all important first game earning home ice.

Still, Lundqvist’s team trailed when Ovechkin and Mike Green worked a textbook give-and-go before the league’s leading finisher fired a low shot which Tomas Fleishmann redirected home for his first of the postseason 6:40 into the second period. They took advantage of the first of three penalties on Naslund, who took a needless trip in the offensive zone. The veteran also lost his discipline in the third but his teammates bailed him out. Offensively speaking, the former Canuck all-time scoring leader wasn’t bad scoring a huge power play goal that followed an Antropov PPG meaning that the NHL’s second worst man-advantage actually wasn’t powerless.

The Rangers seized control thanks to a pair of Cap minors including a John Erskine high stick on Sean Avery near the boards. It was on the team’s second power play that something odd occurred in the form of a PPG with Antropov taking a Gomez pass at the right circle before walking in and beating Theodore top shelf for his first at 16:49. Paul Mara added a secondary helper by working the puck down to Gomez.

They were then aided by a rare gaffe from proven playoff performer Sergei Fedorov, who accidentally fired the puck out of play while still inside his blueline. It took Naslund only 67 seconds to capitalize thanks to a poor line change by the Caps. Picking it up right away, a speeding Gomez gained the zone before dropping for Naslund, who skated into the slot untouched before firing past Theodore suddenly making it 3-1 with 1:32 left.

If ever a player needed to step up, it was Gomez, who finished the season with just four points (all assists) in the club’s final eight games. Just like he did Spring, the playmaking pivot elevated his game notching three points including a momentum changing tying marker unassisted in response to Fleishmann’s series opener silencing a boisterous Washington crowd all dressed in red. The fluky play came out of nowhere when a Michal Rozsival dump took a weird hop right to Gomez, who turned on the jets following a weird collision between Avery and Green that saw the Washington defenseman fall down. Suddenly with room, Gomez surprised an out of position Theodore with a soft wrister tying it 1:09 later.

The goal proved huge giving the Rangers condidence. It looked like they were in decent shape leading by two late. However, the Caps benefited from a missed Green elbow on Freddy Sjostrom that should’ve meant a third consecutive Ranger power play. Somehow, referees Mike Leggo and Tim Peel missed the blatant infraction that had Sjostrom down for a couple of minutes. Instead, the clubs remained at even strength and the home club quickly struck when Nicklas Backstrom setup Viktor Kozlov backdoor after he beat Marc Staal cutting it to 3-2 with 49 ticks remaining.

It almost became a game changer because a great steal by Ovechkin on the third period’s first shift forced Dan Girardi to haul him down. Less than a minute later, a sharp angle Ovechkin backhand from behind the net was kicked out by Lundqvist with Brooks Laich fishing for the rebound. The loose puck eventually came to a wide open Semin, who made sure he buried it tying the game 3-3 with 18:18 left.

With momentum, the Caps searched for the go-ahead tally but couldn’t beat Lundqvist. Even their potent power play couldn’t break through with Naslund in the box for a foolish hold in the offensive zone. Instead, a weary top rated Ranger PK got the job done thanks to the grit of Callahan, whose clean hit of Ovechkin at center ice allowed his team to kill off the big chance. That’s when Cally’s solid defensive work evolved into a game changer.

After Ovechkin changed, the Caps tried to get one more shot on Lundqvist but Antropov blocked it and then moved the puck to Naslund, who had just come out of the box. He then dished off for a streaking Dubinsky on left wing. It was the second-year center who did the rest completely turning Washington D Jeff Schultz inside out before finishing off the amazing individual effort with a perfect wrister shortside. On the great play, Green who played the entire power play got caught out and was worn out allowing Dubinsky to take the shot that broke the Caps’ back.

Despite another bad penalty to Naslund, the Rangers killed it off. They withstood a lot of pressure from a relentless Washington club who finally pulled Theodore for an extra skater in the final minute. But one last great hustle play from who else but Callahan prevented any last second heroics when he made a diving block of an Ovechkin one-timer snapping his stick in half.

With a few seconds to go, the Rangers cleared the puck allowing them to breathe a huge sigh of relief. By then, it didn’t matter how they won. They stole the show.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Brandon Dubinsky, NYR (GW goal w/8:17 left in regulation, 2 hits, +1 in 16:52)

2nd Star-Ryan Callahan, NYR (2 SOG, 2 posts, 7 hits, blocked shot, +1 in 20:42)

1st Star-Alex Ovechkin, Wsh (2 assists, game high 13 SOG, 5 MS, 6 hits, 3 takeaways, +1 in 26:07)

Notes: If there was one noticeable area where the Rangers missed Drury, it was in the faceoff circle as they got annihilated by the Caps 46-20 with Backstrom (13-5) and Fedorov (14-6) doing most of the damage. Laich chipped in going 8-3 and Boyd Gordon was 4-1. Gomez was the Rangers’ most effective finishing 9-14 while Dubinsky struggled losing eight of 14 draws. Blair Betts also was an uncharacteristic 5-12 and rookie Lauri Korpikoski who shifted back to center dropped all six.

… The game was physical with both teams finishing checks including some bone crushers from Ovechkin and crunchers from Callahan. Still, it was Matt Bradley who got the best hit catching Mara with a clean shoulder. The Rangers won the physical battle outhitting the Caps 35-27 with five registering three and at least 11 getting two. Even Wade Redden delivered three playing a solid 31 shifts (27:35) going plus-one while partner Rozsival had a pair logging the second most minutes (28:15). Predictably, Green paced all skaters with 30:47 including nearly 11:30 of PP time. He also had three hits. Ovechkin led the Caps with half a dozen while Erskine added five.

… One area the Rangers had a decided edge was in blocked shots sacrificing their bodies to get in the path of 21 Washington shots. The Caps only had 10 blocks or as many as PK leader Betts and Marc Staal had with each totaling five. Rozsival also blocked three. On the Washington side, Schultz and Shaone Morrisonn each had a pair. … With Drury out, Aaron Voros again suited up only getting six shifts (3:50) registering a hit and getting called for a bogus interference. … Tortorella alleviated more responsibilities to Korpikoski (18 shifts, 11:21, 2:45 SH), Betts (17 shifts, 12:20, 7:41 SH) and Sjostrom (22 shifts, 15:20, 6:25 SH) with each outstanding. … If there was one downer, it was that Russian enigma Nikolai Zherdev was a non-factor in 17 shifts (11:44) registering only one shot.

… F Donald Brashear was a scratch due to a knee sprain. … The teams now get the next two days off before the series resumes Saturday afternoon in the nation’s cap with faceoff scheduled for 1:05 on NBC.

“Congratulations to the players,” said head coach John Tortorella in the postgame press conference. “They have fought through it the past couple of months here, [through] ups and downs, lots of things going on around the team-but they found a way. They set themselves up to win one more home game to get in and they got it accomplished.”

The Rangers did all their scoring in the first period, drawing first blood after only eight seconds of play on a contentious goal that probably should have been called off. Markus Naslund stole the puck in the Flyers zone and, after passing to Ryan Callahan via Chris Drury, rushed the net where he would up jamming it past Philadelphia goaltender Martin Biron. After reviewing the play, the officials let the goal stand, presumably because there was no hard evidence that Biron had covered the puck before Naslund struck it.

The early goal was exactly what the Garden crowd ordered. Even before the puck dropped the noise was comparable, if not louder, than it had been at nearly any point this season, including Adam Graves night.

Fired on by the crowd, the Rangers doubled their lead at 12:06 of the opening period. Callahan got his 22^nd goal of the season, tipping in a Derek Morris slap shot from the blue line. “Mo shot from the point, I tried to get a stick on it and was lucky enough to,” Callahan said about the goal. “That was really big to get two quick ones. It kinda calmed us down a bit.”

The Rangers clearly owned the first period and could have led by three or even four goals. But Morris picked up a tripping penalty late in the period and New York was forced to start the second with a man disadvantage. The Flyers dominated the powerplay and, though they did not get a goal, clearly took control of the tempo of the game. Daniel Briere’s powerplay goal at 9:14 was the logical consequence. The Rangers had clearly lost steam and were pinned in to their end most of the period. Only in the final minutes did they appear to get back on their feet.

The catalyst was once more Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers All Star goalie, who simply got better as the game wore on. The Swedish backstop faced 38 shots on the night, saving all but one. The most spectacular-a glove save from point blank range-came at 4:28 of the final period, when the Blueshirts were struggling to hang in the game. “I don’t know if it was the turning point,” Lundqvist said when the idea was suggested to him afterwards. “As a goalie, when it’s a 2-1 game, it’s fun because every save can be the difference…I did my job and here we are.”

The final minutes were tense and the Rangers also got lucky, with the post and crossbar sparing the team the equalizing goal. New York also had to face another shorthanded situation, when Markus Naslund was called for interfering with Biron, but managed to kill the penalty. In the final two minutes, the Rangers forecheckers did their job superbly, keeping Philadelphia from advancing past neutral ice and preventing John Stevens from pulling his goaltender for an extra skater. The final minute was pure bedlam; the Garden crowd on its feet, Rangers players throwing themselves into shots.

“We fought it for a little bit there. We were under siege for awhile,” said Tortorella. “But we just kept on fighting and tried to figure out some way to get through the game and win it.”

Mission accomplished. After firing Tom Renney Feb. 23, the team has gone 11-7-2 under Tortorella. Would the Rangers have made the playoffs with Renney? “Who knows? That’s one of those questions you’ll never know,” said Scott Gomez.

Notes: By a unanamous vote, Renney was named this year’s Good Guy for his cooperation with the media, as voted on by the New York chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, while Henrik Lundqvist was named team MVP.

Apparently, it’s not the same old song anymore. The fiery Tortorella benched Nikolai Zherdev for the rest of the game getting the rest of his team’s attention. The fire was lit as they scored three unanswered in what amounted to the biggest win of the season, prevailing 4-2 over Nashville.

As noted earlier, it started alright with Zherdev helping setup Sean Avery’s first in his Ranger sequel. Tortorella wanted more traffic following a token showing in which Cam Ward blanked them. Interestingly, the team’s first three goals all were a direct result of players in front getting the uniform dirty.

On the opening goal, Zherdev worked the puck to Scott Gomez whose initial shot was stopped by Dan Ellis. But Avery stuffed it home for his fourth at 3:38.

Instead of building on the lead, penalty trouble put the Rangers in trouble. It started with a lazy Zherdev slash. Though it was killed, Markus Naslund followed the trend with a bad interference penalty. This time, they weren’t so lucky as Shea Weber took a nice Steve Sullivan feed and blasted his 18th off Henrik Lundqvist’s right shoulder and in tying the score.

Suddenly with momentum, Nashville continued to come on getting seven of the last eight shots. They would go ahead off a blatant Zherdev turnover. Circling the net like it was the Ice Capades, the enigmatic 24 year-old Russian forced a pass to a covered point which was picked off starting an odd-man rush the other way.

By the time it concluded, Sullivan, David Legwand and beneficiary J.P. Dumont combined for the go-ahead goal with the former Sabre catching a break when his pass banked in off Dan Girardi’s stick past Lundqvist at 14:56.

The period ended with the Preds beating a suddenly listless New York club to every puck on the forecheck. Perhaps that was the final straw. Who knows what was said or if anything was thrown.

Minus Zherdev, whose butt was glued to the end of the bench the rest of the night playing only 6:01, a different Ranger team emerged outplaying the Preds by a lot. Not only did they outscore them 3-0 the rest of the night but outshot the hosts 26-11.

With Tortorella mixing up his lines even giving Colton Orr a shift with Naslund and Lauri Korpikoski, the Blueshirts responded with two goals in a dominant second doing all the things required of winning hockey.

Some hard aggressive work by Avery created the tying goal. Forcing Ellis to move the puck, the turnover led to Ryan Callahan’s shot that Gomez deflected home for his 16th at 3:01. Though Avery didn’t get an assist, he deserved it. The Preds had no answer for him all night.

Suddenly, the Blueshirts began to take control forechecking the Preds to death. They still needed two gigantic saves from Lundqvist, who made NHL history becoming the first ever goalie to win 30 games in his first four seasons. Only required to make 19 saves, King Henrik came up with a couple that mattered thwarting a breakaway and then stoning David Legwand off a two-on-one.

The clutch netminding allowed his teammates to continue taking it to Nashville. Tortorella basically used three lines getting the trio of Gomez, Avery and Callahan out as much as possible. That’s how dominant they were every shift creating havoc. Not shockingly, it was their play that led to Marc Staal’s deciding marker.

Off a quick rush, Avery found Gomez for a point blank chance but Ellis padded it away. However, some hustle from Girardi kept the puck in leading to a quick shot from Avery from the slot that narrowly missed hitting the outside of the net. Avery and his linemates kept going with Callahan and Gomez coming away with the puck. While confused Preds looked for it, Staal quietly snuck in and fired a shot past a helpless Ellis for his first since Jan.28.

Gomez got the primary helper for his third point while Callahan added a secondary for his second assist.

Up one, the Rangers ran into some penalty trouble but a huge defensive play by Staal led to a crushing shorthanded goal. With Brandon Dubinsky in the box for high sticking, Blair Betts won the draw clean to Staal, who fired the puck around the boards hard. Due to the velocity, Ryan Suter couldn’t keep it in falling down leading to a two-on-one.

Betts patiently waited before passing across for Freddy Sjostrom, who wristed one upstairs for his first in nine games (sixth overall) for the huge insurance goal at 7:59. It was his second shorthanded goal of the season.

Of course, it didn’t come easy with captain Chris Drury taking one of those needless delay of game minors. But the aggressive No.2 ranked PK was up to the challenge making it a relatively easy night for Lundqvist. How many times have we said that this season?

Notes: The win was the Rangers’ fourth in five and allowed them to move back into a tie for seventh with Carolina, who fell in Dallas 3-2.  They also got help from Buffalo, who got a big home win over Florida 3-1 to stay in the mix.

The Pens meanwhile used a three-goal rally in Columbus to steal a point losing a shootout 4-3. They’re sixth while the Canadiens are a point up getting a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Islanders with Kyle Okposo getting the winner. It was the improving rookie’s fourth goal in four games.

Rangers (35-25-8, 78 Pts) have a huge home-and-home this weekend against the Flyers (36-20-10, 82 Pts), who were edged by the Caps 2-1 and are still catchable. The Blueshirts head to Philly for a Saturday matinee before returning to The Garden Sunday for an NBC Game. The two Atlantic rivals have four games remaining versus each other which could go a long way to determining each club’s fate.

The much maligned wing made his return to the NHL last night and the Isles, who were playing a number of call-ups from Bridgeport, made sure that Avery would remember the match by taking a number of hits, some fair and some, well….Avery would appreciate them.

“That felt good to get that out of the way,” said Avery, in his second stint with the Rangers. “If there was any nerves coming in, I certainly got rid of them quick. It felt good to be playing for this team again and getting the win. That’s what I came here to do, try to win some games.”

To his credit Avery didn’t do too much and stood in there to take the punishment. Of course he was still chirping away, sitting next to the Islander bench for most of the game, which is something that Tortorella wants his wing to do.

“Sean kept his discipline,” Tortorella said. “I didn’t see his [cross-checking] penalty at the end of the game, but I thought Sean did some good things. He held onto the puck, he created some things and some offensive zone pressure. And he stayed within himself.”

Avery was the side show in the 4-2 Ranger win. More importantly, the two points earned further secured their tight playoff position. More importantly, the goals came from the Rangers top forwards with Nikolai Zherdev, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Markus Naslund lighting the lamp. The Rangers took advantage of Islander mistakes and even had some success of the power play.

Both Drury and Naslund were able to come through with the man advantage, while Gomez’s goal came on a beauty after two Islander collided freeing Zherdev and his linemate for the 2-on-1 on the other end of the ice.

“I haven’t seen plays like that where it’s 2-on-1 and they make it look that easy,” said defenseman Derek Morris, playing his first game with the Rangers after Wednesday’s trade. “It’s fun to play with great hockey players.”

And it seemed like the Rangers were finally having some fun. With the trade deadline over and a new coach in place, all the team needs to do now is win. Of course, the Rangers will do that behind the strong netminding of Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped a couple of clear Islander shots in the beginning of the game, en route to his 28 saves.

But two defensive faults by Dan Girardi allowed the Islanders their two goals, so Tortorella does see room for improvement.

“It was an ugly win,” the coach said. “We have some things to work on. But good teams win when they’re not playing that well, and I thought we did that tonight.”

As for Avery, he lived to play another day. Although his post game comments were subdued, his drive still seems to be there.

“How would I assess my first game?” Avery said. “I will assess it by the two points.”

Notes: Besides Avery and Morris, Nik Antropov also playing in his first game after coming from Toronto in a trade. He said asked to be traded to an Eastern Conference team and seemed to be happy in New York. Although he was surprised by the Islanders play against the Rangers.

“I will just say that I have never seen the Islanders play that way when we played against them with the Maple Leafs,” he said. Antropov ended up with a primary assist on Drury’s goal.

In a game that was all but decided after 15 minutes, a half dozen different Rangers scored in the team’s first six goal performance of the season. Scott Gomez led all scorers with three points (one goal, two assists), Nikolai Zherdev, Markus Naslund and Chris Drury had a goal and an assist each. Lauri Korpikoski added two assists for the Rangers, who got just their second regulation time victory in the month of February.

“This was big for a lot of reasons,” Brandon Dubinsky said of the victory, the team’s first in five games and second in nine. “The main reason is just because of the losses that preceded this. We felt we deserved to win those. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.”

Scott Gomez said John Tortorella had been pushing the team to score a second goal after taking an early lead. Failure to do so resulted in losses in each of the new coach’s first two games in charge, at Toronto on Wednesday and against Florida Thursday. “Torts has definitely been preaching that, just get that second one and watch what will happen,” said Gomez.”I’m not saying we’re going to do that all the time but it was sort of ‘wow we can score two goals, here we go’.”

To put the offensive fireworks in perspective, it was the first time in 2009 that the team scored even five goals, a feat it has accomplished just three times all season. The six goals were equal to the team’s offensive output its last four games combined.

Despite these lackluster performances, or perhaps because of them, Tortorella has been quick to defend way the team has played his first two games in charge. “When you see your team compete, play well defensively and create scoring chances, you need to feel good about the team,” he said. “It’s very important as a coach to understand how your team is playing. It’s not always about the end result.”

Still, going into the game “I was worried,” he admitted. “Let’s say we’re down 1-0 and all this stuff that has been going on around this hockey team, I was just worried about their mental attitude.”

Tortorella did not need to worry long. The game had barely started when the Rangers got their first chance and first goal. Dubinsky fed Ryan Callahan who had no problem putting the puck in the net after only 28 seconds. The Garden faithful were still celebrating when Zherdev doubled the Rangers lead. New York ended up scoring four times in the first period-the first time that has happened since the third period of the Dec. 29 victory over the New York Islanders. The only other time the Rangers scored four times in a period this season was in the “Sarah Palin game” at Philadelphia on Oct. 11.(the Alaska governor dropped the celebratory first puck at the Wachovia Center).

Action of a different sort consumed the closing minutes of the game. Three different players were given game misconduct penalties by the officiating crew after several fights. Rangers players shrugged off the events. “Boys being boys,” said Dubinsky. “They wanted to leave with some pride [...] It got a little chippy but that is just part of the game.” Tortorella was glad to see his players stick up for one another. “That’s part of an identity you want to have,” he said. “You want to be a hard team to play against.”

Tortorella is just a hockey coach – a good one – but not someone who can turn around the Rangers over night.

Because of that the first two game of the Torts Era, looking a lot like the last 11 of Tom Renney’s reign. The team still can’t score, and they just give up those inopportune goals at the wrong time.

“You can’t hate your guys because they’re struggling,” Tortorella said after the Rangers second 2-1 loss in a row, this time in regulation to the Florida Panthers. “It’s easy to love them when it’s going well and then hate them when it’s going bad. Our best players are going to have to be our best players. And they will. They are going to have every opportunity to get us out of this scoring funk.”

Although the results were the same, the team has taken to Tortorella’s brand of hockey. The effort is there with the players fighting for pucks in the corners, while taking it up a night. This style is very different from Renney, which had his team play back, looking for opportunities.

That worked when your top two scorers were Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, but it doesn’t work with Scott Gomez and Markus Naslund. So something needed to change and maybe the players needed this kick in the butt, as Tortorella is making the Rangers, maybe a little more self assured on the ice.

“Hopefully it helps us get some confidence,” said Ranger captain Chris Drury. “I know a loss and two points that were are not going to get back, but there were a lot of good things done both nights. It’s nice to get back to work tomorrow and start to prepare for Colorado.”

There’s a lot of work still to be done. First the Rangers need to keep pressuring the net at every chance they get. They also need to take advantage of their chances. The power play is still awful and Tortorella needs to keep working. Maybe if general manager Glen Sather can bring in another scorer, the team may get some relief.

But do you really trust the Rangers GM to bring in someone solid? Sure he lucked out with Sean Avery and Paul Mara is a solid player. But this is also the guy who torpedoed the 2006 playoffs by getting Sandis Ozolinsh, and then brought in his clone in Christian Backman last season.

Sather’s track record at the deadline really doesn’t inspire much confidence.

This team will have to probably go about it along. Even if they can re-add Avery, there will be little front line scoring. Tortorella was positive after the loss, probably surprising some, which might be the most interesting part of the night.

“I think we did some really good things,” he said. “Our pressure was outstanding. I don’t think we were fatigued. Maybe for a few minutes, but I think we controlled the game and we played a hell of a game.”

Yet, they get not points for the effort. Tortorella needs to get wins and get them now, because if he doesn’t, this season will be on him and he will become the coach that didn’t make the playoffs, not Tom Renney.

Despite the team’s inability to put the puck in the net, new head coach John Tortorella refused to criticize the Rangers game. “I think we did some really good things,” he said. “Our pressure was outstanding.” Other than squandering a 5-on-3 powerplay in the second period “we played a hell of a game,” Tortorella said.

Florida head coach Peter DeBoer shared these views. “I thought they played an outstanding game,” he said of the Rangers. “Let’s be honest; nine times out of 10 when the other team plays like that, you usually lose.” DeBoer said killing off the 5-on-3 was likely the turning point in the game.

Markus Naslund scored the Rangers only goal in the first period. A solid check by Ryan Callahan produced a Panthers turnover. Dmitri Kalinin ran the puck up the left wing and delivered it to Scott Gomez, whose backhand shot was saved by Florida netminder Craig Anderson before Naslund deposited the rebound for his team-best 19^th goal of the season.

The Rangers dominated the first 30 minutes of the game had numerous chances to expand their lead. Some outstanding saves by Florida goalie Anderson combined with goalmouth ineptitude by the host team kept the margin at 1-0. The Panthers began to regain momentum in the second half of the middle period and nearly leveled the score in the opening minutes of the third. But the post saved Henrik Lundqvist-at least temporarily. The Swedish netminder, who had turned in a characteristically stellar performance to that point, was beaten on a “five hole” shot by David Booth at 11:50 of the final period.

Torts refused to blame Lundqvist when given a chance to in the post game press conference. “It’s a tough game for a goalie where you don’t see much action and then there’s a couple of opportunities,” he said. “I thought [Lundqvist] made some key saves in the second period when he hadn’t seen any action at all and made a couple of great saves.” Instead, it was a matter of the team getting its goaltender some margin of error to work with. “We have to try to get that second goal so that type of situation doesn’t hurt you,” said the coach.

Nathan Horton got the game winner for the Panthers one minute after Booth had tied it. The goal prompted the inevitable boos and “fire Sather” chants from the Garden faithful. But Tortorella remained upbeat and made clear he is not going to be picking on individual players-at least not yet. “You can’t hate your guys because they’re struggling,” he said. “Its easy to love them when its going well and then hate them when its going bad. They did a lot of good things tonight. We’re just struggling to score and that’s compounded when they score a couple of quick ones on us towards the end of the game when we controlled most of the game for the 60 minutes.”

Old habits die hard. There’s a reason the former Lightning coach took over the NHL’s worst offensive team and it was on display again despite a much more aggressive style that generated plenty of chances.

Most encouraging was the improved play of Wade Redden, who scored the only goal breaking a 58-game drought when he whistled a slap shot through traffic past Vesa Toskala for a power play goal putting the Rangers in front at 10:26 of the second.

The 31 year-old former Senator who has been a bust till this point was much more active jumping up in the play while playing steadily in his end teamed with other underachiever Michal Rozsival, who picked up an assist on his third as did tormented captain Chris Drury.

Though they outplayed and outshot the Leafs significantly (24-12) thru two periods, the Rangers couldn’t increase their lead against a razor sharp Toskala, who finished with 31 saved to help his team to a comeback victory-  allowing Toronto to take the season series for the first time since 2003-04.

Under Tortorella, the Rangers didn’t sit back in the third continuing to press forward with lots of pinching from new look D pair Marc Staal and Dan Girardi who both looked good. Each certainly had opportunities to score as did Drury, who was setup by Nikolai Zherdev with a chance to go up two but stoned by Toskala with the rebound going by his stick.

That’s the kind of season it’s been for Drury who now is in a career worst 16-game goal drought. His effort was much better as well taking the body while working effectively with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan. Tortorella also moved guys around also trying Dubinsky with Scott Gomez when Zherdev and Markus Naslund weren’t together.

The lack of finishing came back to haunt the Blueshirts as a more aggressive Toronto team got the equalizer when Niklas Hagman beat Staal to a loose puck and then came out and fired topshelf past Henrik Lundqvist for his 19th with 9:39 left in regulation. He scored the winner Sunday night at MSG ending Tom Renney’s reign behind the bench. Mikhail Grabovski and rookie Nikolai Kulemin netted assists.

Despite neither team sitting back, each couldn’t score taking the contest to overtime. Interestingly enough, the Leafs spent the final shift attacking the Rangers with Dom Moore, Jason Blake and Nik Antropov buzzing. However, a make shift line anchored by defensive minded Blair Betts never budged allowing their team to get a valuable point.

The Rangers came close to winning it in OT when Dubinsky got behind the Leaf D but somehow didn’t manage a shot instead opting for a wraparound attempt which was foiled. Next time, just shoot!

Somehow, the refs saw fit to call Ryan Callahan for goalie interference when he was clearly pushed into Toskala. The other night, it was a tacky call on Betts which resulted in the Leaf winner. This time with 2:28 left, the Rangers again had to kill off a garbage call.

Thanks to some aggressive penalty killing including from Rozsival and Staal, the Rangers killed it even getting a chance to win when Staal and Betts came in two-on-one. But Staal’s centering pass for Betts was missed due to an excellent backcheck from Blake.

Perhaps it was fitting that the game went to a shootout where so many have this season. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good omen when Kulemin deked Lundqvist going forehand stick side to give Toronto the only goal they’d need.

Tortorella went with Naslund, Drury and Zherdev. Naslund came the closest but his backhand which got through Toskala just deflected wide. After Lundqvist foiled Hagman’s backhand, Drury’s backhand deke was too predictable easily stuffed.

Lundqvist then forced Grabovski wide into a miss setting the stage for Zherdev. However, the Russian couldn’t deliver with his high offering sailing right into Toskala’s catching glove as the Leafs came out to congratulate him.

Notes: In a different theme, only three Rangers failed to register shots with Betts, Freddy Sjostrom and Dmitri Kalinin not doing so. … Rookie Lauri Korpikoski (9:46) stayed at center anchoring a third line with Nigel Dawes and an effective Petr Prucha (15:45, 3 SOG), who even saw PP time. … Team enforcer Colton Orr got 6:34 nearly scoring on an inspired shift twice but was on for the goal against. … Referred to by his new coach as “the best goalie in the league,” Lundqvist did his part stopping 23 of 24 saves. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

… If there was a downer aside from the lack of offense, it was in the faceoff circle where the Rangers got destroyed 36-18 with Moore (13-4) and Grabovski (11-2) owning Gomez (7-13) and Drury (5-12). Betts was the Rangers’ best going 4-for-9 while Korpikoski lost six of eight. … No.6 seeded Rangers (31-23-8, 70 Pts) face a big test at home versus No.7 Panthers (30-22-8, 68 Pts) tomorrow night.

… In other notable games, the Flyers shutout the Kings 2-0 suddenly pulling within four of the Devils who get Martin Brodeur back tomorrow night versus Colorado. The Pens got a much needed win 1-0 over the Islanders thanks to a Petr Sykora tally with 2:28 left. They now have 66 points and are two out of eighth and four behind the Rangers.

Gone are the stats and schedule, Tom Renney had hanging up in the locker room.

Gone are the easy going rules, such as allowing the media step on the logo in the middle of the floor.

And gone was Mike Pelino – Renney’s only remaining assistant – who was reassigned to scouting and video.

“It’s good for them mentally to wipe the slate clean,” Tortorella said in a lively press conference after practice. “I had the trainers take down the standings in the locker room and the stats and all that.”

Admittedly, Tortorella used his first day on the job to observe the team, since he really didn’t know all the players. He has a history with Paul Mara, who played for the new coach in Tampa and Brandon Dubinsky last year in the World Championships, but the rest of the roster comes from reputation and the limited amount of play they had against the Lightning.

So Tortorella allowed Jim Schoenfeld run the practice, while he took in what he had to work with.

“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you I know what they’re about – I don’t,” he said. “I know how I want them to play. I need to be cognizant of what you have as personnel, can they play your style. After one practice, I don’t have a clue. We have three games in four nights and that’s where we’ll see what they’re about and how they grasp some of the little things we’re going to change.”

For the first day, at least, Tortorella rearranged the lines with Scott Gomez centering Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev, while Brandon Dubinsky moved to left wing to play with Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan. On the third line, Petr Prucha was taken out of moth balls to be with Nigel Dawes and Lauri Korpikoski. And the fourth line of Blair Betts, Fredrik Sjostrom, and Colton Orr remained in same.

By the looks of it, Aaron Voros will be the odd man out in this scheme, but Tortorella also feels he wants to ride his best horses, giving them the most ice time.

“I’m not a four line guy. Your best players need to be your decision makers,” he said. “They’re going to get every opportunity to win hockey games for us, they’re going to be put in those situations. As long as they show me that they’re going to can compete hard, I’m going to give them every opportunity.

“There may be some tough times, but if they’re playing hard, I’m going to get them right back out there to allow them to work through it. If a player can’t control his work habits, if there’s a problem there, that’s when it gets dicey. We got to start getting up the hill, not keep going down the hill.”

Tortorella is in a tricky situation here. With a limited time left in the season, he said he didn’t want to “overload” the team, but at the same time, he wants to introduce his system to the Rangers, which is based on offensive attacking, as opposed to Renney’s defensive trapping system. This means, the adjustment period will have to be short if the team is going to make a successful run.

“I’m going to do it slowly but surely, sometimes on the ice, sometimes on the plane, when I think it needs to be done,” he said. “I want them to be themselves. I talked to a couple of players today just in a more casual way. They’re willing to talk to you better that way. Put a player in an office and he tends to clam up. So it’s going to be a two-way street. You know I’m going to be speaking to them and I’m going to push along the way. I want them to feel comfortable to talk to me.”

There will be some conflict, as the new coach is known to call out a player or two in the media. But he also seemed to learn from his experience with the Lightning, since he wants to step back and get used to his new team.

He said he will be running the offense and the power play on the team, while Schoenfeld will take care of the defense and penalty kill. He also said Benoit Allaire will be the other coach on the staff, which will keep his most important player happy.

“I think [Henrik] Lundqvist is the best goalie in the league,” Tortorella thought. “When you have a goalie that can cover up some of those mistakes and not everything ends up in your net, it’s a huge for developing your team. The situation in goal here is going to help us. They make a mistake and you still get a save from — what do you call him here, Hank? We can talk about all sorts of things, but goaltending is the most important in winning and losing.”

As is a good first day, which Tortorella had at the MSG Training Center.