Larry Brooks, New York Post --- Since Tortorella made decision to limit the 21-year-old rookie to fourth-line cameo appearances in the wake of a pair of deficient plays in the defensive zone in Game 4 led to a pair of Capitals’ goals in Washington’s 3-2 victory, the Rangers have scored one pure five-on-five goal in 144:52 covering more than seven periods, and that by Anton Stralman in the first period of Game 5.I have watched every game of the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals series and this series reminds me of the Bruins and Capitals series, much like the Bruins, the Rangers have failed to get a lot of offensive chances down low in the slot. The Capitals have effectively clogged up the front of the net and have made it difficult to get any chances on net. It not very exciting hockey but the Capitals are negating the Rangers offensive opportunities and you can see it frustrating the Rangers. It’s also been a very unattractive series to watch as well.
Not a forward has scored a pure even-strength goal since Tortorella benched Kreider while concurrently and mysteriously demoting playmaking pivot Derek Stepan from a top-six role to a checking line assignment between Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust while elevating checking center Brian Boyle to the spot between Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov.
The moves have failed. Where the Kreider-Stepan-Callahan line could generate speed off the rush through the neutral zone against the Caps, and did when previously united, the Rangers have been stagnant and station to station since the realignment, the reasons for which have been placed into Tortorella’s accordion folder of confidential material that has grown larger than the Penske File.
Apparently, Rangers head coach John Tortorella isn't even saying whether the former Boston College Eagles star Chris Kreider is going to play in Saturday’s game seven or not, don’t expect Torts to say a lot about the matter either during his press conferences.
