Stiff upper lips; Richter writ large

So what is the mood around the Rangers, a team on a four-game skid entering a critical weekend (is there another kind?) with games tomorrow against Atlanta and Sunday against Philly?

“The mood is great,” John Tortorella said after practice today. “They practiced well, they practiced with energy. They’re not gonna just drag themselves around here because they lose a game; we need to get ready for another game, so they’re fine.”

As Chris Drury put it, “For a couple months we’ve been saying, the next game on our schedule is the biggest one of the year. … You can’t change the one that’s gone and you can’t play for the one that’s next week. Big-picture, we know what’s going on, we know who we play down the stretch, but right now it’s that one game, and even simpler than that it’s that first period against Atlanta.”

One switch from practice today included Sean Avery in a yellow jersey skating among the five-man group of fourth-liners, with Brandon Prust moving up. Prust gave the Rangers a big boost last night in Jersey (though in the end it didn’t take) when he pressured Mark Fraser into coughing up the puck from in behind the net and then went to the front to bury the rebound of Jody Shelley’s shot, tying the score at 3-3 in the second period. And John Tortorella has said he likes what he’s seen lately from Prust, an add-in to the Olli Jokinen deal with Calgary. “He’s ugly when he skates,” Tortorella said, “but he gets there. … He’s earned his time, and he’s been a pretty good player for us and deserves some more minutes.”

After Jamie Langenbrunner broke the tie that Prust had forged last night, the killer goal came shortly thereafter off the stick of Brian Rolston by way of the stick of Dan Girardi. As discussed, that Devils 3-on-1 began when Ryan Callahan led a four-man Ranger rush but missed the net, creating a hard carom out of the zone while an oncoming Wade Redden was knocked to the ice.

Tortorella said he talked to Callahan about the play, and that the play Callahan made - looking for Brandon Dubinsky - “needs to be simplified and just put the puck on net.”

“I’ve got the tape, I can rewind it, slow it down, I have the luxury of doing that,” Tortorella said. “Dubie’s stick was checked - I thought Dubie could have done a better job of trying to really grind and get his stick there, but at that point in time, I just think we have to at least get that puck to the net. We stressed trying to put more emphasis on trying to get our D involved in the rush; Reds was trying to do that. Unfortunately he hits a guy and gets knocked down and it goes the other way.

“Yeah, I think it needs to be simplified and just put the puck on the net. Especially because we felt if we just throw the puck at his feet we were going to get chances for rebounds. Unless there’s an absolute dead play there where you can get it to the backdoor, it just can’t go wide, it can’t go wide and go out the other way. And that’s a pretty important turn.”

Said Callahan: “I guess in a situation like that, knowing that a D’s joining the rush too, I’ve got to recognize it and put that puck on the net. Having that many guys crash, hopefully there’s a rebound or something. Just a bad break I guess. We had everybody going north, and obviously it goes around the boards and they go the other way.”

Meanwhile, the biggest crowd around the dressing room today was drawn by Alex Auld, who received his new mask today with its personalized design that is certainly an eye-catcher. On one side, it features a sort of silhouette of Madison Square Garden as the backdrop for two goalie masks, one white in the style of Eddie Giacomin and the other the Ranger red, white and blue worn by John Davidson. The other side depicts Mike Richter hoisting the Stanley Cup.

“We thought about doing something with old masks,” Auld said of his brainstorming with the Rangers’ trainers, “and then when we thought about old masks we wanted to pay tribute to Richter. He’s one of the great Rangers of all time. It just sort of developed from there.”

Auld, who was claimed off re-entry waivers from Dallas at the end of the Olympic break, said he liked the design of his Stars home mask better than his road one, so he had the Ranger design painted over the road mask. Actually, this particular helmet has made its way around the league pretty well. “This actually has an Ottawa paint job and a Dallas paint job under there,” Auld said.

Auld will take his Stars home mask home as a souvenir and add it to his collection. The 29-year-old is with his seventh NHL team of the last eight years. “So I’ve got quite the collection,” he said.