With his recently assembled line showing notable progress, Rangers coach Ron Low revealed yesterday that he’s leaning toward keeping the Manny Malhotra-Mark Messier-Radek Dvorak trio together next season, as well.
“That could be,” Low told The Post at the Rangers’ practice site at Rye Playland. “It could very well be.”
Mind you, Low’s plans for next year might have had something to do with the line’s sparkling performance in Thursday’s 6-4 Rangers victory against the Islanders at the Coliseum.
With his blazing speed and ever-improving scoring touch, Dvorak exploded for a career-high four goals, including a short-hander and an empty-netter. The right winger’s 29 goals this season dwarf his previous career-high of 19 that he set with the Panthers during the 1998-99 season. And there are still five games to go, including this afternoon’s match with the Devils at the Meadowlands.
While he had been one of the team’s more productive players throughout the season, Dvorak has picked up his scoring in the last month (nine goals in last 11 games) since moving from the Czech line onto Messier’s flank.
Low said that Dvorak (career-high 64-points) responded to the switch by becoming more aggressive offensively. Instead of simply being a complement to Petr Nedved and Jan Hlavac, Low said that the 24-year old is benefiting from Messier’s leadership and Malhotra’s hustle.
“He’s starting to shoot the puck a lot more from the outside,” said Low, who added that Dvorak has proved to have the reliable hands to be a scorer. “He isn’t afraid to go to the front of the net to score the dirty goals . . . The one thing that’s happening is that Mess is talking to both [Dvorak and Malhotra] every time they get back to the bench. What he’s trying to impress on Dvo is that he might be one of the fastest players in the league and [he should] use that outside speed.
“I think it’s changed his game. He’s playing, I would say, a much more North American game. He’s giving outside, he’s shooting the puck and that’s what we wanted to get out of him.”
For his part, Dvorak claims that his style hasn’t changed next to Messier and Malhotra.
“I’m still playing the same game,” he said after his four-goal outburst. “Speed and go to the net, that’s my game.”
It’s that game, Low feels, which will lead to future 35-goal seasons.
“I think if he uses his speed and keeps using it like he is right now he’s going to be a heck of a player for us,” Low said.
*
The Rangers have not beaten the Devils in 23 straight regular-season games (0-15-8). The Rangers last defeated the Devils on Jan. 12, ’97, at the Garden; their last victory at the Meadowlands came on Oct. 30, ’96.
“You hope that [we] just say, ‘We’ve had enough,'” Low said.