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.

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.

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.”

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.

HT: 6-2 WT: 212

DOB: June 22, 1977 In: Lloydminster, Sask.

Hockey Inspirations: “I’m from Lloydminster, Sask., which is about two hours from Edmonton and I grew up watching the Oilers – Gretzky, Messier and all those guys. I was a huge fan.”

First Hockey Memory: “When, I think as a five-year-old, the game went into overtime and they pulled the goalie so the kids would have to skate over the blueline to shoot it in. I stumbled over the blueline and barely got it over the goal line – it was like my first goal in overtime. I can still kind of clearly see the puck going in. I don’t know why it’s so vivid, still to this day. It’s funny the things you remember.”

Hobbies/Leisure Activities: “I enjoy golfing in the summer. Summer’s a great time to get away from the ice. I have a boat. Enjoy some water sports; wake boarding.

Nicknames: “Reds, Redsy, Red Dog.”

Favorite Movies: “Actually a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and his movies like Blood Diamond and The Departed. Looking forward to seeing Body Of Lies – it’s just coming out. A lot of his movi es are mystery, drama – great acting.”

Last Book Read: “I’m in the process of reading a story about Genghis Khan by Conn Iggulden. It’s kind of history mixed in with fiction, so it’s actually really good reading.”

Favorite TV Show: “Seinfeld.”

Musical Tastes: “The classic stuff. You hear a lot of Rolling Stones in the dressing room. I think that’s because Scotty Gomez is such a huge fan. I like them. Guns and Roses; Pearl Jam. I also like to mix the country in, too – Garth Brooks is an old favorite from way back. Tim McGraw.”

First Job: “Well, I grew up on a farm. My dad farmed, I always worked there. One of our neighbors had a seed farm. He’d have to go pick the weeds in his crops, because he couldn’t have any weeds in his greens. So we’d get roped into doing that every year. Me and my brother would get the call from the guy – such a nice lil’ guy. He’d take us for pizza all the time for lunch. And we didn’t have the heart to say no to him even though it was kind of a crappy job.”

First Car: “I bought a Chevy pick-up truck, step-side, four-by-four (green). I was pretty pleased with that vehicle.”

Current Car: “Just got a Lexus, the hybrid SUV (dark gray).”

Favorite Website: “Probably YouTube. I like going on there and checking out whatever. I just surf around and find some funny stuf f to watch – Will Ferrell Saturday Night Live skits, old hockey films, stuff like that.”

Pre-Game Feeling: “Just try to focus. Usually have a few thoughts in my head – what I want to do on the ice. Kind of run through that, go over that list and remind myself what I want to do out there. Then just get excited and get ready to go.”

Favorite Meal: “Hard to say. Italian food probably – so many good Italian restaurants in New York. Chicken parm, good pastas; such fresh food – good and tasty, rich.”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “I’d say chocolate.”

Greatest Sports Moment: “Other than the first game, first goal – I actually scored my first goal in my first game (in Montreal in ‘96). We had some big moments in Ottawa – we went to the final one year. I think winning the Eastern Conference in overtime – it’s always such a good feeling to win in overtime. Daniel Alfredsson scored in Game 5 to put us in the final. That was a great moment.”

Most Painful Moment: “Losing in the semifinal to Jersey – they scored a late goal in Game 7 to beat us. That was a tough one.”

Closest Hockey Friends: “My old teammates in Ottawa – Alfredsson and Phillips. Scotty Hartnell, too, is a guy from my hometown Lloydminster – he plays in Philadelphia. I keep in touch with him a little bit, too.”

Funnie st Players Encountered: “Andre Roy. He was in Ottawa for quite a while and I got to be buddies with him. Just a clown all the time and keeps everyone laughing.”

Toughest Competitors: “That’s hard to say. I played a lot against Gary Roberts in Toronto when he was there. He always seemed to do so well against us. He’s just a hard-working guy and fearless.”

Funny Hockey Memory: “A few times it happened – when we’re getting ready for the national anthem and the girl comes out on the ice. There were three of them one time in Nashville and they all wiped right out on the mat. Or – I hate to bring this up – but we were in Quebec City; we had to play the U.S. team before the ‘05 World Championship. The girl came out to the ice to sing the American anthem and she lost the tune and forgot the words. Then she went off and came back to try again and slipped and fell on the ice – it’s been on every highlight reel. That’s one of the funnier moments I’ve witnessed.”

Embarrassing Hockey Memory: “In a charity game in Alberta, during the lockout. After we scored a goal they give you a prize and you throw it in the stands. I got a basketball and I went to kick it in the stands. I didn’t even get it over the glass and I wiped out – went flying onto the ice.”

Last Vacation: “It was actually my honeymoon. I got married this summer. It was later in the su mmer, so we took a little trip to Vegas – spent four days there, had a great time.”

Most Memorable Goal: “My first year, maybe go back to then. We were in a playoff race and second-to-last game of the year we were in Detroit. I got the winning goal with less than a minute left. Then we ended up winning our next game at home, the next night, to advance to the playoffs.”

Strangest Game: “I remember one time in Ottawa the power went out right before the game. And we were sitting there for like an hour-and-a-half after warmup. All the power went off in the whole building. We were sitting around, not knowing if we were going to play – just had the emergency lights on. Then they finally got the power going – we started about 9 p.m. That was a little odd.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “Just down to earth, good people who like to laugh and have a good time. Just people like that; good-hearted and not rude. Not too cocky, but I don’t mind a little cocky – it’s kind of funny.”

Mark “Scoop” Malinowski’s first book “Heavyweight Armageddon: The Lewis-Tyson Championship Battle” was called “A smashing success, one of the two best boxing books I ever read,” by Emanuel Steward. It is available at amazon.com.

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.

There were just a couple of solid trades designed to make the Blueshirts a better team, and ones that allow the club a chance compete in the playoffs.

“What we were really trying to do was get some scoring, size, grit and and speed,” said Ranger general manager Glen Sather. “I think we did that. We’ll see how the cards play out in the future. (Coach John Tortorella) likes them. He thinks we’ve helped our team immensely.”

Two separate deals right before the deadline brought the Rangers big right wing Nik Antropov from the Maple Leafs for a conditional second round draft pick, and rugged defenseman Derek Morris from the Coyotes for Dimitri Kalinin, Nigel Dawes and Petr Prucha.

Both deals were made to sure up the team’s deficiencies, with Antropov becoming the finisher the Rangers sought all season, while Morris becomes that power play quarterback, a role Wade Redden just seemed to forget how to play.

“Antropov is a big winger, centerman,” Sather said. “He’ll help us in the goal scoring department. Morris is a good, solid defenseman, he’ll give us a little more bite in the back end. He can play a little bit of everything, offense, defense.’

Just by the virtue of making the trade, Antropov becomes the Rangers leading scorer with 21 goals and 25 assists this season for a terrible Toronto team, while Morris has struggled with the numbers this season with just 5 goals and 7 assists, but has averaged between 25 and 30 points a season in the past.

Couple their arrivals with coach John Tortorella’s hiring and Sean Avery’s much awaited return, the Rangers have gained a lot in personality over the past week. And now have the personnel that can help the Rangers on the power play, which ranks 29^th in the league

“Antropov is certainly a guy with a lot of power play time,” Sather said. “He’s a goal scorer, a big body. Morris is a smart player with a history of playing on the power play.”

The price for all of these moves looks high on paper. The conditional second round pick could hurt the team in the future, but losing Kalinin, Dawes, and Prucha doesn’t sting as much because they all became expendable after the deals were made.

Although he does have a scoring touch, Dawes seemed a little undersized for the NHL. Good on the third line, the 24 year-old struggled when he moved up in the lineup. And Prucha may have needed a change in scenery, since he was buried by former coach Tom Renney the last two seasons, after scoring 52 goals his first two years.

“Since we’ve gotten Avery here, we did have a surplus of forwards,” Sather said. “And adding Antropov takes another position. It makes sense to put those two forwards in the deal and give them the opportunity to play.
“I like Prucha. If you look at Antropov coming in here, we needed to get some size in front of the net on the power play and he’s going to solve that for us. We wanted to give Petr the opportunity to play.”

Kalinin is a unrestricted free agent this summer and probably wouldn’t have been re-signed because of his disappointing first season as a Ranger.

Antropov and Morris also can walk away over the summer, which is why these deals are somewhat risky for the Rangers.

But even if they do move on, the trades also allows Sather some cap space on the club, which is another reason why yesterday a such a sold day for the club.

Although the club has agreed in principle with the former Tampa Bay coach, the deal still needs to be signed off by the Lightning, since Tortorella is still under contract with the club. According to Newsday, the Lightning wants some sort of compensation for their disposed coach, which is holding up any announcement.

Yet, the league has stepped in and is attempting to help broker a deal between the two clubs.

If everything is worked out, Tortorella reclaim a position he held briefly at the end of the 2000 season. Coaching four games after John Muckler was let go, the coach went 0-3-1, before the Rangers brought in Glen Sather to run the club. The general manger let Tortorella go in favor of Ron Low, and the coach went to Tampa the next season.

There he stayed for June 2001-June 2008 and compiled a record of 239-222-36-38, including a Stanley Cup victory over the Calgary Flames in 2004. He won that Jack Adams Award that season.

The 50 year-old is known as a fiery coach and the antithesis of Renney, who was more of a intellectual. With a locker room of friendly faces, Tortorella will be a coach who will take the team to task when it becomes necessary. In Tampa, he benched Vincent Lecavalier when the Tampa captain was not playing up to task. The new coach may do the same with disappointing Ranger veterans like Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Wade Redden.