Before last night’s game, John Tortorella was still fuming about Brandon Dubinsky’s stick throwing stunt Thursday night saying this (via Bergen Record)…
“I thought it was, quite honestly, just a ridiculous penalty, at a time of the season, when you’ve got 20 games left that we need to be working on other things as far as details than that nonsense. And, quite honestly, if other people were healthy tonight he wouldn’t be playing tonight. As much as I like this kid and as much as I think he can do some good things for us, we need to start seeing it now. Not that bull(^*#@!), but play and try and help us.”
While Tortorella did put Dubinsky in the line-up, he demoted the Rangers forward to the fourth line with Mike Rupp and John Scott.
And how did Dubinsky respond? Only with his best game of the season.
And how did Tortorella respond to Dubinsky’s inspired play? By bumping him up to the top line with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik late in the third period which led to this…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inisGY7CNdI&w=450&h=315]To watch on YouTube click here.
…where the hell was that all year?
Torts also made sure to acknowledge Dubinsky after the struggling forward scored the tying goal…
Post game, Torts had this to say about Dubinsky…
“He didn’t play much last night. He had the most energy out of all our forwards. We were a banged up hockey club, a tired team tonight. Certainly no excuse. But he had some juice in him. I thought he played real well with the fourth line and when I bumped him up he played real well. He scored a big goal for us.”
…Torts can play favorites and it seems like someone always has to be in his doghouse, but when you see a player respond to Torts’ challenge the way Dubinsky did last night it only further proves the team’s respect for their head coach and that they’re ready to follow him to the promise land.
…also give the Rangers head coach credit for recognizing Dubinsky had received his message and rewarding his hard work with increased ice time. Which obviously paid off.
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