FanHouse JohnTortorella

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.

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 probably know that the New York Rangers were spanked in Game Five of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal playoff series with the Washington Capitals last night, 4-0. You probably even know that Rangers head coach John Tortorella was involved in an altercation with a unidentified fan that involved the coach tossing a water bottle.

So how did it all go down? Truth be told, I'm not really completely sure. It's clear from the TSN video that we linked to earlier this evening that the Rangers coach was going after somebody with a stick, but most of the rest of what we know came from the commentary provided by Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro.

But now, thanks to another video uncovered by Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy and some on-the-scene reporting from Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post, we know that Tortorella did indeed toss a water bottle, and that he was provoked by little more than the usual in-game harassment by the local fans. Video and more after the jump.

After taking a series of potentially costly penalties late in the third period of Game 4, the New York Rangers have apparently seen enough of Sean Avery, as the super-pest is a healthy scratch for Game 5 against the Washington Captals.

According to ESPN.com's Pierre Lebrun, head coach John Tortorella wasn't in any mood to talk about potential lineup changes earlier in the day.

WASHINGTON -- What a difference a week makes.

One week ago, after the Washington Capitals ended their regular season with a desultory 7-4 loss to the Florida Panthers, things couldn't have looked better.

Thanks to a late season slump on the part of the New Jersey Devils, the Caps had slipped into second place overall in the Eastern Conference. Their opponent: the New York Rangers, a team that the Caps had dealt with rather easily, posting a 3-0-1 record against them during the regular season.

But if one thing is clear after the Rangers have taken a 2-0 lead in this playoff series, it's that these are not the same New York Rangers that the Capitals faced during the regular season -- not by a long shot.

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Exactly 1,230 regular season games have been played. We're down to the best eight teams in each conference. The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday night with four series lid-lifters.

In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins rallied from a bit of a swoon around the All-Star Break to easily win the top seed. Even if you subscribe to the idea of Boston being favored because of their strong overall record, there are no sure things in these here playoffs. Who will threaten to knock the Bruins off their pedestal?

In the third period of Pittsburgh's 4-3 win over the Rangers on Saturday afternoon, Colton Orr was issued a five-minute major for interference (and a game misconduct) for this hit on Pittsburgh's Mark Eaton.

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The Stanley Cup won't be handed out until June, but this is the time when we see teams making runs at the playoffs. And you can't win the Cup if you don't make the playoffs. Race for the Cup is your daily check of where your favorite team stands as the season dwindles.

They won't win the Central Division, but the Columbus Blue Jackets are one of the real intriguing stories of this NHL season. A 5-0 blowout of Calgary Thursday night put the Jackets in great position to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. It was another shutout for Steve Mason, and another big night for Rick Nash. Mason pitched the shutout, while Nash dished out four assists.