GREENBURGH, N.Y. — It doesn't happen often, but a kinder, gentler John Tortorella emerged after practice here Wednesday afternoon, as he tempered the paint-peeling criticism he leveled at his Rangers after a 3-1 loss to the Devils on Tuesday night.
"We have some guys that look scared to me, and tentative," Tortorella said immediately after the defeat at Newark. But on Wednesday, Tortorella softened that criticism considerably and even did something he rarely does: accept some personal responsibility for the Rangers' inconsistencies.
"I'm not trying to threaten them," Tortorella said at the Rangers' practice rink here. "Not to pound my chest, you know, and be this guy who's a heavy."
Tortorella was responding to a question about whether he was assessing the way he was coaching the Rangers' ineffective power play. He accepted the question with an even temper and expounded on the answer, using it to put forth a more forgiving view of his players in general.
"We're a 4-5 hockey club," Tortorella said. "I don't want to turn this into a criticizing of the players when we lose – that's not what I'm trying to do. But I don't want us to be – and maybe 'scared' was the wrong word – and maybe it was the right word. You can say it 10 different ways."
He added: "We're testing the waters instead of trying to make a difference – that's what I mean by being 'tentative' and 'scared' and all that. Trying to make a difference – don't look to someone else, and don't give your problems to someone else. I think we'll get better for it. Yeah, we just finished our tape, and it's right there, so hopefully that'll help. That's what I'm trying to do."
On Tuesday, Tortorella said that the rookies J.T. Miller and Chris Kreider played well enough that "they're probably going to take some people's jobs." He was asked about that Wednesday.
"I don't want to do it with this group because I think it's a good group of guys – I'm not trying to threaten them," he said. "Certainly I'm not putting all the onus on the players – we have to help them along the way here. And I'm trying to stay away from criticizing so much because it really doesn't help them. We need to do it together, and until we do, we're in a jam. We're in a jam, and we don't have a lot of time to continue to work ourselves out of it."
Tortorella said he "always" looked at how good a job he and his coaching staff were doing with the players.
"We need to take responsibility along with them — we're doing it together, just like we do all our concepts," he said. "I'm in constant conversation with our guys, how we get this straightened out. Are we giving you too much? Are we not giving you enough? Are there too many options? All that stuff comes into play."
SLAP SHOTS Tortorella said he did not know if defenseman Dan Girardi would return to play the Islanders at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Girardi sat out Tuesday's loss with an undisclosed injury, only the third game he missed since starting his Rangers and N.H.L. career in 2006-7. "I have no updates," Tortorella said.
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