ST. LOUIS – Sometimes, it takes a new voice. Sometimes, a new voice becomes only a second one crying in the wilderness.
The Rangers gave up three power-play goals in seven Ottawa opportunities in Wednesday night’s 5-3 Garden loss, including six penalties in a row that had their tongues dragging, and had Glen Sather’s flapping yesterday morning that the penalties that brought down Bryan Trottier are killing any chance for a late run at a playoff spot.
Not that there was anything new about this, Sather having brought up discipline before, during, and after the Ottawa defeat. But yesterday was a new day, as they dwindle down to a precious few for a team desperate both for a spark in goal last night from Dan Blackburn, and for some night-in, night-out resolve to do the right thing.
“I hope Danny can have a great night to get us going,” said Sather, nodding when asked if one good turn by the sophomore goalie, virtually ignored by Trottier after the acquisition of Mike Dunham, could lead to another tomorrow afternoon in Philadelphia. Dunham was resting a slight groin pull last night, even if Sather said Blackburn had been penciled for the start regardless.
Dunham thinks the pull, on the opposite side from the one that forced him from three games in Nashville, won’t keep him from playing against the Flyers. Sather thinks if the players in front of any Ranger goaltender remain brainless, a playoff spot probably already lost during this five-game winless streak will become utterly hopeless.
“The foremost thing about discipline is that it has to be second nature,” said Sather. “It has to be automatic, it has to be subconscious.
“You have to go on the ice knowing you are going to do the right thing. You have to have it in the back of your mind [that you] will do whatever to not retaliate. It’s a constant every-day thing, preaching and reinforcing.
“Bobby [Holik] knows he can’t grab a guy’s stick, he has to absolutely know if the does that he’ll get a penalty.
Perhaps if Holik knows he’ll miss his next few shifts if he commits that penalty, he won’t bother. And maybe if Sather had some options, a benching or two might catch players’ attention.
“That’s where it gets tough,” said the coach. “We don’t have enough healthy people here to do that. It’s fine if it’s four or five games into the season and you have healthy guys out of the lineup. We don’t have the luxury right now. Talking about it is not always the most effective way, but right now it has to be.
“I’m not preaching anything that Bryan wasn’t.”
Sather is not going to fire this coach, unlike he did last one. So what else can he try? Last night, Rico Fata was going to get more penalty killing shifts and Jamie Lundmark was going to get a shorthanded tryout, too, in lieu perhaps of Holik and Eric Lindros, who are getting scored on often in 5-on-4 situations.
“The best change we can make is not going to the penalty box,” Sather said. “I’m not against playing Mark [Messier] 20 minutes, but we’re killing him on the penalties.”
Both Pavel Bure (knee) and Brian Leetch (ankle) had hard workouts yesterday morning including starts and stops and reported progress. But the winger still can’t make right turns to his satisfaction, and the defenseman can’t stop.
Bure, probably closer than Leetch, wouldn’t rule out returning in Philadelphia, pending how he did in practice this morning here. But with reinforcements not on the way last night, most of what Sather could do was just try to reinforce common sense.