John Tortorella Switches Lines Again; Christensen Finds Himself On Top Line

just trying lines to build some chemistry. anyways, i’d argue that the best (and thus “top”) line would be the dubinsky-richards-callahan line.

however, christensen skating with gaborik and wolski is a joke. he should be skating in the ahl. or by himself in the press box. i’d rather put anisimov with gaborik and richards, loads of offensive talent, even if a bit soft…

Good luck Rangers with this coach…Christinsen should be sent to AHL and not to play on top line…If they loose Ottawa,.i will start cheering for olilers!!!

We should be mindlessly slapping the puck and chasing it more often. It has worked wonders for our puck possession.

FUCKING TOTORELLA SUCKS! This really is a smack in the face and an insult to ranger fans intelligence. Ranger brass needs to pull in the rains on this egotistical arsehole. Wolski has been the worst player on the ice in the last few games other than maybe DZ. He looks lost, afraid of the puck and the opposition. Christensen, Really?

I am disgusted, I feel like this is a joke. And not that his matters but enough is enough with this Newbury garbage. He is an AHL player, That is all.

Any chance of putting a nice package in front of Don Maloney for Kyle Turris? Or what about a swap for Olez with Chicago. Again, I am not a cliff jumper either but we have quite a few useless spare parts laying around . Our veterans are not getting younger and our core is mediocre at best.

I hope Staal proves to be a spark in his return. I feel bad for Hank, sure he had a bad game last night but he can’t keep them in all of them.

Dubi and Cally are invisible. Did anyone see the look on Dubi’s face at the end of the second when he was in the scrum with Phaneuf, he looked like he was going to cry. WTF is going on with him and Cally. I love these guys, and I know it’s early but show us something?

Anyone?

WE GOTTA GOON IT UP

First off, I hate EC and don’t believe for a second he should be on this team, let along the first line. However, I did say before the season that if they did end up splitting Gaborik and Richards it could work quite well. I truly believe that last year was just an aboration for Gaborik, as he has been someone who has produced without a number 1 center throughout his career (also proved it in his first year here.) Richards is the type of player that makes the other players on his like that much better. Can you imagine if Gabby could do what he did his first year here (40-40) without playing with Richards, and Richards had a significant impact on Cally and Duby (maybe 27-33 goal neighborhood for the two)? The team would have two lines with a top 20 player on each, and make it much more difficult to defend. With that said, I wanted the first line center to be Arty or even Stepan. Definitely not Christensen. I’m fine with him as the 13th forward.
Moral of the story, I dont entirely hate the idea of splitting up Gaborik and Richards, with the exception of EC being on the first line…

Like it or not (of course, mostly not) Christensen is one of the 13 forwards on the team, and with Rupp out, one of 12. Thus, he’s going to be in the lineup. Ditto Wolski. Torts job is to get the most productivity out of all 12 players in the lineup.

Putting Wolski and EC with Gaborik at least attempts that goal, unlike previous combinations. Everyone with a pulse knows that the two of them with Newbury is/was not going to get anything done. They have offensive talent, and the way Gaborik is flying around, he can probably elevate them.

The biggest questions to me with this lineup:
1) How much ES time does AA’s line actually see?
2) Who pulls the line more, Dubi and Cally forward, or Richards backward?

Messier or Gretzky busy? Maybe one of them can save the team from Torts. Could they coach any worse?

Rangers are in a big hole.!..get rid of this idiotic creep coach and hire someone who knows hockey and has some spirit..that can be applied to players.or its gonna be the same old…maybe .fighting for last play- off spot…if lucky!!!!..You are analyzing it too deeply,but in fact,its.so simple!

Can anyone other than Prust hold their own in a fight? Ok, Newbury started strong before Brown got the clear win yesterday. And it’s just painful watching big boys like Boyle and Rupp lose the decision every time they drop their gloves.

truthfully, Rosen should be in between them since he is the natural center.

Sadly, Biron may be better then EC.

Hell if Torts must change the lines up every shift, then might as well use your whole staff.

For once, I would like him to be patient. We cant have every combo statistically possible.

I hope the WW-EC-MG line is showcasing for a trade. so both EC and WW are gone. but if you think WW and EC are the teams problems they are not, no one expects anything really from them but more is expected and needed by the pack line players and they not playing well at all. they are hurting this team right now. Maybe putting BR on that line will give them a boost.
Team really needs Staal back. Anyone that thinks that Staal is more like a #3 d-man(hfboards has even some rangers fans saying that), BS, this team plays to much team d without him. Sauer getting back in the line is going to help that a lot but not as much as Staal getting back. If it looks like Staal is out for the year(torts on espn made it sound like that) then glen needs to call NSH up and see what the price for either Weber or Sutter is.
Time to trade AA for a true LW (Paajarvi). I like AA but he is not needed with Stepan. AA, I think because of the Lokomotiv tragedy is distracted and rightfully so, many of his friends died in that crash.

yea

but they are not causing the same problems by not playing well as supposed to the second line playing like a 4th. we also have no 4th line, its just the left overs. I think some blame is on the fact that they need to play more D because of Staal being out.

I want both WW EC gone ASAP I said that but they are not the teams only problems and not really the major ones. The pack line players need to play like they did last year.

I was watching the TSN feed and they should just how bad the ice was plus some leaf player said it was the worst he has played on this year or something to that effect. DZ had an easy slapshot that hopped over his stick for a leaf breakaway. If you didn’t see the replay you probably thought that “DZ with another turnover” but it was the ice. I missed the WW play but is it possible that was the ice also?

Rangerrants has Brandon Dubinsky-Brad Richards-Ryan Callahan as the first line.

Does anyone else here think like I do that Tortorella shakes-up lines so damn frequently that he doesn’t allow the chemistry he so desires to develop? Chemistry takes time – I don’t know why he seems to expect instant and incredible results when he changes things. Even within the context of 1 game, 1 game, he can’t seem to keep a line together. To my knowledge, that can’t be said of any other coach in the NHL (unless they are 2x shifting somebody).

I get the feeling that if Torts was a gardener, he would plant seeds on Wednesday and if a full-grown apple tree wasn’t there by Thursday, he would say "Ah, F**k it", pull them out of the ground, and then plant a new set of seeds expecting something different tomorrow.

Can someone point me to the nearest cliff please? It’s not because I dont believe in this team/Torts, but because of all the other cliff jumpers making my brain hurt.

Those will only be the lines for 10 minutes. It IS time to scratch a few people and make a call-up or two.

http://www.snyrangersblog.com/2011/10/28/read-john-tortorella-doesnt-want-to-change-lines/

This all has nothing to do with the players on the roster. they proved in the first period that when they skate, forecheck, and hit that they can dominate. It stopped after the first and it was game over. why? I don’t know. ask the coach.

I’ve been just as worried as a lot of other peoplee on here about the play of this team. I was going along with the long road trip and fatigue excuses and after listening to leech last night on the post game saying its been a common accurace for a team to come out flat after coming into a “new building” or this case a renovated building for the home opener. So I was willing to give them a couple more games before drawing a conclusion about this team but I’m starting to think more and more maybe its Torts who is the problem . I mean come on, the constant juggling of the lines is getting ridiculous and now this? What reason could he possibly have for splitting up the only line that has produced!?! How are u gonna put Richards on the 2nd line and EC on the 1st!?! I’m not giving up on this team but its getting harder and harder to believe that Torts knows what the hell he is doing.

Pretty please bring up Avery. He might not have the greatest statlines but he draws the attention from the others teams and, not to mention, big apple media away from other players. Experience in this league is valuable.

Not saying we shouldn’t have made the trade, actually I am glad he is doing well for Calgary so they don’t feel so slighted.

You are about to join the Occupiers on Wall St. Keep it up.

I totally disagree with Torts about effort not being the reason for the dull play. It has everything to do with effort. If they play like they did last year and the first period on Thursday then they will be fine. Enough with the line changes. They will sink or swim with the lines of BR/Gaby and the Pack Line. The team was constructed around these combinations and to disrupt that having not even played 10 games is ridiculous. It’s a clear sign that it is the coach that is panicking. Relax Torts. You just signed a 3 year contract and you’re not going anywhere. Let the players play together on the lines that should be constructed and let them figure it out. And please get WW, EC, and MDZ off the team. George, this is for you. If you want an example of why stats are flawed, look no further than MDZ being the team leader at +4 so far. He should have been a -3 within a 3 minute span on Thursday if not for the King and his partner Sauer.

if this doesn’t work out…can we just waive EC outright? We can’t put him back on the 4th line to play even more ineffectively.