FanHouse John Tortorella

NEW YORK -- With each goal Marian Gaborik scores, with each goal he sets up -- two goals and one assist Monday in the Rangers' 5-2 win over Phoenix -- it's impossible to not think about the most startling trade of the offseason.

The deal that had nothing to do with Gaborik, yet everything to do with the Rangers signing Gaborik.

NEW YORK -- With the Yankees in the ALCS, the Giants contending for another Super Bowl appearance and the ups and downs of Mark Sanchez captivating the city, the 7-1 start of the Rangers had fallen under the New York radar.

So it's only fair not to make too big a deal of the Rangers getting their doors blown off by San Jose on Monday night in a 7-3 loss at Madison Square Garden. Just like the seven-game winning streak, this too shall pass.

"As bad as it was, it's just one game and two points," said Rangers captain Chris Drury.

Markus Naslund, at one point earlier in the decade an elite winger, has decided to retire. Naslund would be entering the last year of a two-year, $8 million contract with the Rangers in a five-year point decline that saw him disappointingly put up 46 in New York in 2008-09. Unable to keep up with John Tortorella's fast-paced scheme, Naslund could have forced the Rangers to buy out his deal and pocket some money, but he chose to retire outright instead. [New York Post]

Erin Andrews. Google her name and you'll get about 771,000 results, many of which are blogs that obsess over the ESPN sportscaster's every word. But meet her in person and you'll find a woman who may seem like you or I, stunning good looks aside. She loves sports, remembers old Nintendo games, and yes, does get her feelings hurt from time to time.

FanHouse recently had a chance to chat with the most popular female sports reporter at the NCAA Football 10 premiere party to find out what drives her, what gets under her skin, and whether she'd drop her career to be a backup dancer for Britney Spears. Our full interview with Andrews is below.

Before the Rangers made a whole host of changes to their team in March -- the additions of Sean Avery, Derek Morris, Nik Antropov and a coaching switch -- they had a few problems; their high paid stars weren't producing, they played with no emotion many nights and they couldn't score at all, depending on Henrik Lundqvist to win games.

During last night's loss to the Capitals and in their other three losses during the series, the Rangers fell prey to these same faults. Blame coach John Tortorella's distractions and GM Glen Sather's letter all you want, but this was still the same that struggled mightily before the bandaids were applied.

WASHINGTON -- As the Washington Capitals left the ice at the end of a scoreless second period Tuesday with the team tied 1-1 with the New York Rangers in Game 7 of their first round playoff series, the team should have counted itself lucky.

Though the game was tied and the shot count close, the Caps, who had climbed back from 2-0 and 3-1 series deficits to tie the series 3-3 and force a Game 7 at home, had been thoroughly outplayed by the visitors.

How? The Rangers just seemed to want it more. All series long, New York coach John Tortorella had said that he wanted his team to work the puck down low deep in the Caps defensive zone. And on shift after shift during the second period, the Rangers took up residence in Wayne Gretzky's office, continually throwing the puck out front to wingers cutting to the front of the net. If it hadn't been for some otherworldly goaltending by Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov, the Caps could very well have been left for dead.

But in one moment in the third period, an old veteran proved he had something left in the tank, and 11 years of playoff frustration evaporated in a flash.

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After a fake news report, a six-game suspension, an allegation of biting, and a coach being banished to a suite for turning a water bottle into a projectile against opposing fans, it is hard to imagine there being anything more unexpected in a mere first-round hockey playoff series. But there is something more unanticipated in this set of great interest now between the Rangers and Capitals. It is that the series wound up where it is scheduled to be Tuesday night -- at a deciding Game 7.

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After defeating the Rangers, 5-3, in Game 6 Sunday afternoon, the two teams will play a Game 7 in Washington on Tuesday night. When that game gets played, the New York Rangers want to make sure that there isn't a repeat of the incident that occurred on Friday night in Washington that resulted in a one-game suspension for John Tortorella.

Just minutes before the puck dropped Sunday on Game 6, Rangers GM Glen Sather issued a letter to Gary Bettman providing additional details about what happened on Friday night, supplemented with a number of accusations that the Capitals organization failed to provide enough security to protect Tortorella and the rest of the Rangers players from the fans sitting behind the visiting bench.

Full text of the letter follows after the jump.

By now you know that New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella has been suspended for one game for his actions during a confrontation with a fan during Game 5 of his team's first round playoff series with the Washington Capitals. That means that New York Rangers assistant head coach Jim Schoenfeld -- no stranger to postseason hockey on the ice or behind the bench -- will take control when the puck drops for Game 6.

But while plenty of folks may be wondering how Schoenfeld performs, I'm hoping that somebody -- the NHL and Madison Square Garden security in particular -- has an eye out for what goes on behind the visiting bench.