Rangers scoring goals, but coach Mike Sullivan doesn't want to see 'reckless hockey'

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Rangers went into Saturday night’s game against the Blue Jackets having scored 13 goals in their last two games with an at times free-wheeling approach that coach Mike Sullivan has enjoyed – to a point.

“There's inherent risk in playmaking, right?” Sullivan said after practice on Friday in Brandon, Florida. “There's inherent risk in playmaking. So for sure, we are going to give our best players the latitude to act on their instincts. I look at it as my job is to identify when the risk becomes too great, when it turns into reckless hockey. We don't want to play reckless hockey because we can't win that way. Can't win consistently. You can win the odd night, but you're not going to win consistently playing a reckless game. That's what I try to do, is give them the latitude to act on their instincts. When it gets a little reckless, we try to reel them in.”

Case in point: The Rangers scored on their first three shots and four of their first five in Wednesday’s 7-3 win over the Lightning in Tampa. But they also gave up three goals in the first period, which ended with the Rangers leading 4-3. It was fun for the national TNT audience, but Sullivan wanted to see the Rangers return to their normal ways, which they did for the rest of the game.

“I think that's the game that we have to strive to put on the ice every night,” Sullivan said. “I don't think that it's one at the expense of the other. In other words, it's not a binary proposition. We can create a lot of offense off our defense, and we have. For this early part of the season, we've created a lot of offense. We didn't score goals early on. Now we're scoring goals. I don't think it's at the expense of playing defense. I think they go hand in hand. I think one actually helps the other in a lot of instances. Finding that we're hard to play against, I think, is an essential aspect of winning consistently.

"We certainly have to score goals. We have to score goals to win consistently also, but we're not going to score our way to success. We've got to be able to defend and we've got to be able to be hard to play against, and cut the quantity -- and more specifically -- the quality of the looks that our opponents are striving to get also. So that's the game that we're striving to put on the ice.”

Artemi Panarin was not a goal-scorer on Wednesday. But he had four assists after a two-goal performance in Monday’s 6-3 win over Nashville at the Garden.

Before whiffing like the rest of the Rangers in a 5-0 loss to the Islanders on Nov. 8, Panarin had a goal and two assists in a 4-1 win at Detroit the night before. So that’s nine points in four games. Going into Saturday, Panarin led the team in points with 16.

“I think when he’s at his best, the puck follows him around,” Sullivan said. “He finds a way to have it a lot . . . There are probably a number of reasons for that, but that’s what the game looks like when he’s at his best. I think he’s a threat off the rush. I think he has an uncanny ability to delay or slow the play down and allow the rush to go by him and then create opportunity. I think he’s getting better as far as supporting the play in the offensive zone. We’re trying to encourage him to be a little bit closer to his linemates, and I think he’s doing a better job there.”

Borgen out. Defenseman Will Borgen did not play because of an upper-body injury. Borgen, who was scratched after he went through pregame warmups, had played in 285 consecutive games. Matthew Robertson replaced him.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.