Call me crazy, but this week I've been thinking about Kotalik. Redden. Roszival. Higgins. Valiquette. Voros. Drury. Brashear. Lisin. Where we were two years ago. "Stuck on two." Losing record at home. Turnstile D. Late game backbreakers. Anti-Sather rallies. Hank getting run constantly. Owned by Pitt and Philly.

And then I look at today's standings. Nice feeling. What a difference 2 years makes!

I know this is the time of year when we look back at the regular season and list our top moments, and we should do that too. But I was wondering if any of you had any real low moments/situations you wanted to remember from the last few years that will put our current position in even happier perspective.

(PS - I know that some of the names I listed up top were good players - at one time - I mean no disrespect by listing them as negatives. But none of them exactly shined for the Rangers, and to me, they came to symbolize nausea and frustration.)

Carolina's remaining schedule is fairly brutal. Here are their remaining opponents, with their record against them so far, and total goal differential:

Tampa (3x) - Record: 1-1-1 Goal Differential: 13-10 Tampa

Caps - Record: 0-4-1 Goal Differential: 14-7 Caps

Habs - Record: 0-3 Goal Differential: 14-7 Habs

Isles - Record: 3-0 Goal Differential: 14-6 Carolina

Sabres - Record: 2-1 Goal DIfferential: 6-5 Carolina

Detroit - No Record

Atlanta - Record: 5-0 Goal Differential: 17-14 Carolina

Join me after the jump for my prediction based on the above.

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Tortorella should be relieved of his coaching duties after the season is over. His pre-season focus on conditioning and defensemen joining the rush never amounted to anything. He is STILL experimenting with lines, not just from game to game, but many times within each game. He often appears mentally unstable, sitting players more as an outlet for his constantly simmering anger than for any rational reason. He bears a great deal of responsibility for the inconsistency as well as the offensive incompetence that this team has shown all year. All the yelling hasn't worked, it's backfired.

I have to admit, for awhile I found his post-game antics funny, but they haven't worn well on me. Reporters have a job - to ask the coach for an assessment of a player or a line after a game is reasonable. Torts' pat answer has become: "I don't want to dissect the game" or "I don't want to judge a player's performance." Then why even bother giving a press conference? Take some responsibility for the fact that your record is worse at this point in the season than Renney's was last year, don't just lash out at media. It's the easy way out.

This team needs to rebuild around Gaborik and Lundqvist. We have some good young players, and hopefully within a year or two will have added a strong defenseman and a first line center. With the talent we have coming up, we should be a good team in 3-5 years, maybe even a contender. We need someone with a steadier hand than Tortorella to guide this process. He's too unstable, inconsistent, and even unprofessional. Thoughts?