Something up between Drury and Tortorella?

I've got a bad feeling about this one. I think we may have trouble between our Coach and our Captain.

Chris Drury has worn the Rangers "C" with pride and represented us well. He's played hurt. He's played hard every shift. He's taken each loss more personally than most players ever seem to. Like us - Chris lives and dies with the New York Rangers every night.

And Drury has always made time for the Press. He's always been available after games to talk to reporters. Good games - bad games - Chris gets it that the reporters are the Rangers link to us - their fan base - and he always goes out of his way to cooperate.

That is, until now.

As Newsday reporter Steve Zipay and others have noticed - something's wrong with Drury this year. He's not making himself available, he's not hanging out at his lockers and he's not talking to the Press. And on the ice - Chris has been scarce as well - not scoring - not notching assists - not being an integral part of the Ranger team.

Now, Coach Tortorella has not complained or said a bad word about Drury this year. But on the other hand - he hasn't mentioned him much at all.

Tortorella has made no secret of the fact that he dislikes the New York media - something he's actually pointed out to them on more than one occasion already this year - and the season hasn't even started yet. So with Tortorella feuding with reporters - Drury's positive relationship with the press is now clashing with his boss's attitude.

We've all heard that Tortorella's motto for this season is "Shut Up And Play". But what I never thought about before is who is Torts telling this to? Because the Ranger who does most of the public talking is his Captain - Chris Drury.

I hope I'm way off base here. Tortorella and Drury have reportedly been in communication over the off season and were supposedly building a bond. But the sequence of events is clear:

1 - In the Tom Renney era - Drury is named Captain

2 - Drury acts as public spokesman for the Rangers

3 - Tort's says "Shut Up And Play"

4 - Drury stops talking to reporters - he "shuts up".

And there's no missing the fact that something's definitely wrong with Drury all of a sudden. And until we see our Captain looking like his old self - on and off the ice - we're going to worry