Day: July 8, 2009

The best defense is a good offense. Write that down somewhere, because you’ll probably need it frequently in the coming season watching the Rangers. The process of dismantling Tom Renney’s version of the Blueshirts has well and truly progressed this Summer, and you’re not likely to see the Rangers amongst the league leaders in goals against or penalty kill.

Under Tortorella you’re unlikely to see the fourth line out there for the last shift of the game, or facing up against the opposition’s best lines at even strength. The reason? Well for one, the new coach doesn’t really believe in using four lines, and he believes even less in players who are simply strong defensively.

One of the issues last season was undoubtedly the Rangers’ power play. Ranked second last in the league during the regular season, they not only managed a pitiful 13.9 percent – Detroit lead the league at 25.5 percent – but they also gave up the second most shorthanded goals of any team, an embarrassing 14 against.

Chris Drury lead the Rangers with 10 power play goals last season, good enough for just 39th in the league and Markus Naslund‘s 8 put him in a tie for 75th league wide, simply not good enough for a team looking to compete at the highest levels.