FanHouse TomRenney

The Edmonton Oilers have made a major splash in their efforts to make it back to the playoffs.

Three non-playoff years have followed Edmonton's magical run to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, and that was enough to cost longtime coach Craig MacTavish his job. Tuesday afternoon, the Oilers turned to a couple of familiar names to help them turn around their fortunes.

Red Wings 4, Sharks 1: In the fourth -- and final -- regular season installment of Western Conference Finals Preview '09, Detroit picked up a 4-1 win over San Jose on Wednesday night. Henrik Zetterberg scored a pair of goals in the win, including a shorthanded marker early in the second period to give the Wings a commanding 3-0 lead.

Marian Hossa and Ville Leino also scored for Detroit, while Ty Conklin turned aside 34-of-35 shots in net. The loss snaps San Jose's four game winning streak, while the two teams split the season series.

Typically in the sports world, coaches get too much credit when things are going well, and too much blame when they aren't. When a team isn't meeting expectations, the easy thing to do is fire the coach and bring someone in who will "change the message" or something like that.

On it's surface, the coaching change made Monday by the New York Rangers smacks of this type of desperate management.

Sharks 1, Stars 0: The only game on the schedule Monday night was a goaltending battle as San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov turned aside all 29 shots he faced to lead the Sharks to a 1-0 win in Dallas. Devin Setoguchi scored the game's only goal at the 7:55 mark of the third period, giving San Jose its fourth straight win.

Marty Turco was strong for Dallas, stopping 24-of-25 shots in what was his 30th consecutive start in goal. He's been outstanding the past three months.

UPDATE (8:30 PM): The Rangers have confirmed that John Tortorella is officially in as coach.

Only a few hours after the firing of Rangers' coach Tom Renney, TSN's Bob McKenzie went live with a story about whom the successor could be.

According to McKenzie, the Rangers and former Lightning coach John Tortorella already "have an agreement in place" that would make him the 34th head coach in team history. However, the Rangers would need to contact the Lightning about his availability, something McKenzie said has not happened yet. The key word there is likely 'yet'.

With 21 games left in the regular season, the struggling New York Rangers have decided to make a change. No, this one doesn't involve Sean Avery.

Instead, the Rangers have fired head coach Tom Renney, according to Newsday. TSN is also reporting the move. Newsday says former Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld and former Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella are candidates to replace Renney.

Each Wednesday, two of our bloggers will take on one league-wide topic. A mediator keeps orderly. It's quite a bit like the shootout, actually.

This week's lineup features Eric McErlain's and Ted Starkey's takes on the NHL coaching carousel in the wake of Pittsburgh's firing of Michel Therrien. Yours truly will be the guest referee. Let's get started!

Blues 2, Rangers 1: A day after getting crushed on their home ice, the New York Rangers dropped a 2-1 decision in St. Louis, losing for the eighth time in their past nine games.

At this point, it's anybody's guess as to how long Tom Renney remains behind the bench, as the Rangers continue to slide down the Eastern Conference standings.

Things are getting ugly in New York as the Rangers continued their recent slide with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, their seventh loss in the past eight games, putting them in the quagmire that is the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Aside from getting booed much of the afternoon (the only emotion the Madison Square Garden faithful showed) the Rangers were also getting crushed by NBC analysts Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury for their lack of effort and intensity.

Florida Panthers goaltender Craig Anderson turned aside all 37 shots he faced, while Henrik Lundqvist failed to make it beyond the second period for the Rangers, as the Panthers used a three-goal outburst in the second to roll to a 4-0 win.

The Panthers received goals from Ville Peltonen, Stephen Weiss and Gregory Campbell in the second, as Weiss and Campbell scored just 12 seconds apart, leading to Rangers coach Tom Renney lifting his all-star netminder. Michael Frolik added some insurance in the third period for Florida, picking up his second goal of the season.

For Anderson, it's the fourth time this season he's stopped at least 37 shots in a game, as he pushes his season record to 4-1-3 and currently boasts a .948 save percentage, best in the NHL. He had to withstand a 17-shot barrage from the Rangers in the final period to preserve the shutout.

Anderson's performance was good enough for him to earn yet another start on Tuesday, when the Panthers take on Washington.