At 7:40 tonight in Newark, I tweeted, “If you like loud swear words, head down to the #NYR locker room at the first intermission. 22.3 seconds to go, it’s 1-1. Shots 16-5 for NJ.”
 
The Rangers were lucky to get out of the first period tied with the Devils, especially after Artem Anisimov just barely got his stick in the way of Jason Arnott’s attempt to put the puck in an open net. But I was wrong about the notion that John Tortorella would be full of fire and brimstone between periods.
 
“We just needed to clean up some things,” Brian Boyle said. “We needed to be harder, we needed to play the body. We know. He doesn’t need to come in, he doesn’t need to yell at us, he doesn’t. We know how to play. We’ve been together awhile, I think, and we’ve got the core group and the leadership to know we can take ownership of it ourselves. We knew we needed to do better, and we were fortunate it was 1-1. But we came back. We’re a resilient team, and it’s a lot of fun, because we come back and no matter what, we’re in every game.”
 
Boyle’s career-high 14^th goal got the Rangers even 47 seconds after Travis Zajac opened the scoring in the first period, and the Blueshirts went on to a 3-1 victory over the Devils, the sixth time that they have come back to win after their opponent scored first.
 
After a momentum-changing fight between Boyle and Dainius Zubrus, a shot by Michal Rozsival deflected past Martin Brodeur off the leg of Devils defenseman Andy Greene, and Brandon Dubinsky added an empty-net goal with 5.5 seconds left in the game.
 

It should come as no surprise that Henrik Lundqvist will be in net for the Rangers tonight in Newark, making his 28^th consecutive start against the Devils. The rest of the Blueshirts’ lineup also will be the same as it was for Monday’s 7-2 victory over the Islanders at the Garden, including rookies Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan on a line with Marian Gaborik.
 
Here’s what John Tortorella had to say as his team prepared to face the last-place Devils…
 
On Todd White’s demotion to Connecticut of the AHL: “It’s the philosophy that we’re going with here, with the kids. Whitey, he’s a good man. I never really got him in a real good opportunity, an offensive position. But honestly, he’s 35, and we’re looking to try to develop a team. Last year, we weren’t in this kind of position, I don’t think, where you’re sending guys down. We add some different pieces, fill with some guys from the minors. (Dale) Weise has come up and played a good game, and you may see him again. Zuccarello is here now, and we’re trying to build our team with youth. That hurt (White’s) opportunity, definitely. Good man. When he played, he certainly didn’t hurt us. But this is the philosophy we have right now, as far as trying to develop our team with kids.”
 
On Jacques Lemaire saying that with the Devils playing so badly, there is no Rangers-Devils rivalry: “I’m not – all’s I’m concerned about is our team. We’re trying to find our way, as – I don’t want to keep on repeating myself – that’s our biggest concern, is us. Not too concerned about other stuff around us. We need to focus on our game, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
 

Todd White has cleared waivers, and there is an open roster spot in the AHL after defenseman Lee Baldwin was assigned to the ECHL this morning.
 
Officially, White remains a member of the Rangers, but he was not among the 11 players on the ice in Newark for this morning’s optional skate, and there was no stall set up for him in the visitors’ locker room.
 
Martin Biron was the goaltender who worked out this morning, a solid indication that Henrik Lundqvist will start tonight – although the even more solid indications are that John Tortorella has often said that Lundqvist will always play against the Devils, and the fact that Lundqvist has started 27 straight games against the Rangers’ cross-river rivals.
 
Of the players expected to feature in tonight’s game, the ones on the ice this morning were Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Chris Drury, Ruslan Fedotenko, Matt Gilroy, Michael Sauer, Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello.
 
Michael Del Zotto, whom Tortorella said yesterday would be out of the lineup tonight, was the last player off the ice, skating for nearly an hour. Vinny Prospal also got a long workout in, and remains uncertain when he will return.
 
Prospal is in good spirits, though. When asked to compare where his surgically repaired right knee to his healthy left one, the veteran winger replied, “It’s on the right side.”
 
In all seriousness, though, Prospal said, “It’s not the same, strength-wise, because it’s been … almost four months. It’s been some time and the muscle hasn’t been worked out. But believe me, I know it’s getting stronger. It is. I tried to measure it on my own, and the squeeze is getting wider.”
 

John Tortorella did not go with the lines that he said he would before the game, and he wound up looking like a genius.
 
“I put those lines up at 6:10, we were going on (for warmups) at 6:30, that’s when I put those lines up as far as what were going to change to,” Tortorella said after the Rangers’ 7-2 rout of the Islanders. “I had been thinking about it all day long, and put them together on paper – I wanted to play (Marian Gaborik and Mats Zuccarello) together. The rest of the lines flowed from that.”
 
The Zuccarello-Derek Stepan-Gaborik line combined for two goals and three assists, including the Norwegian’s first career NHL point – an assist as Stepan extended his goal-scoring streak to four games.
 
Artem Anisimov centered a line with Brandon Dubinsky and Chris Drury that combined for a goal and four assists, while the ever-steady Ruslan Fedotenko-Brian Boyle-Brandon Prust trio racked up two goals and three assists.
 
The other two goals, of course, were scored by Matt Gilroy, his first two-goal game in the NHL. The Rangers’ fourth line of Sean Avery, Erik Christensen and Alex Frolov generated seven of the Blueshirts’ 52 shots on goal.
 
Tortorella said he would have to look at the game tape to see how he liked the lines. Though the results would seem to speak for themselves, the Islanders do not exactly rank as elite competition, even having entered the game on a three-game winning streak.