The New York Rangers’ anemic offense did OK on Friday, scoring three goals in a 4-3 shootout loss to the pesky New York Islanders. If you thought that effort made Rangers coach John Tortorella happy, well ... you haven’t been following Tortorella much.
His statement after the game was quite simple, as ESPN’s Katie Strang reports:
“We’re a sloppy hockey team right now,” Tortorella said.
Tortorella ranks as one of the best coaches in the NHL, but there’s a small segment of Rangers fans who believe that his hard-driving style might burn him and/or his players out. This slight slow-down might be a good test for that theory.
Appreciation for P.A.
Tortorella’s comments deflect at least some praise for a great game by Islanders forward P.A. Parenteau, who has five points in his last four contests to push his season points total to 56.
If you want to make a sports snob’s blood boil, call a mildly under-praised player “underrated.” My guess is that even that hard-to-please crowd would mostly agree that Parenteau’s great play has gone under the radar, though.
Naturally, there’s the urge to call his run flukey for a few reasons.
1. I doubted Michael Grabner’s success based on the following logic: sometimes a good player looks borderline great on a bad team because that guy’s getting more opportunities (and less criticism/surveillance) than he would on a more heavily scrutinized contender. Could that apply to Parenteau too?
2. Also like Grabner, his surprisingly strong run of play is coming in a contract year.
3.. At 28 years old, Parenteau already eclipsed last year’s career-high for points - and this is just the second season that he’s truly been able to “stick” at the NHL level.
Grabner was more streaky, however - he scored 41 points in 44 games after generating just 11 in his first 32 last season - while Parenteau’s been a bit steadier. Overall, I think Parenteau has a chance to be a consistent quality performer; the question is if he can approach this level with much frequency, though.
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Whether he’s breaking through or playing over his head for a single season, Parenteau deserves more attention for his strong work - even if he doesn’t stomp around and breathe fire like the guy who coached him for 22 games in 2009-10.
(Yup, Parenteau once played for the New York Rangers.)