As Rangers Face Future, Tortorella Is in It GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Hope and faith were just about all the Rangers had to lean on Wednesday as they faced elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Boston Bruins. They have been outmuscled, outchecked and tactically outsmarted in every game as the Bruins cruised to a 3-0 series lead, and now the question has become: Will Coach John Tortorella keep his job after the series ends? General Manager Glen Sather was unavailable for comment at the Rangers" optional practice, but he almost certainly will have to answer that question should the Rangers be eliminated in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday or, if they survive that test, in Game 5 at Boston on Saturday. "Listen, we're down, 0-3 - there's no sense of feeling pressure," said Tortorella, whose contract runs through the 2013-14 season. Players that get to play tomorrow, and play more minutes than maybe they're used to, grab a hold of it - grab a hold of it and let it happen. I mean, if you lose, you're done. So that's what I'm hoping for and will get from some of our guys. There have been no indications from the Rangers" organization that Tortorella's job is in jeopardy, as there were in the weeks leading to the firing of his predecessor, Tom Renney, in February 2009. Renney and Tortorella have similar records while coaching the Rangers. Renney took over late in 2003-4 and went on to coach three full seasons and part of a fourth, totaling 327 regular-season games. Tortorella's tenure started late in 2008-9, continued for three full seasons and on through this lockout-shortened fourth, totaling 315 regular-season games. Renney's teams won 164 games and lost 163; Tortorella has won 171 and lost 144. In the playoffs, Renney's teams won two series and lost three. If the Rangers fall to Boston, Tortorella's teams will have won three series and lost four. The Rangers went all the way to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last season under Tortorella, and that, along with the seven-game comeback victory over Washington in the first round this season, have probably guaranteed that he will start next season behind the Rangers" bench. Renney was soft-spoken and outgoing with reporters. Tortorella's confrontational style with the news media does not seem to be a problem for the Rangers" organization, even if it may cost him a chance to be the United States Olympic men's team coach at the Sochi Games in February. Many have speculated that Tortorella's outbursts are calculated to relieve pressure from his players or shift the spotlight away from them, but there seems to be no evidence to support that contention. He gets into the same confrontations when there are only three or four reporters on hand for an early-season road game as he does when there is a room full of reporters for a playoff game. His repeated assertion last weekend that Carl Hagelin, one of his favorite forwards, "stinks on the power play" hardly seemed calculated. The remark seemed to irk and baffle Hagelin, who had hardly appeared on the power play. Tortorella shuffles his lines frequently, but against the Bruins, he has kept them static in the same middling combinations. Rick Nash has remained largely ineffective, with 1 goal and 4 points in 10 playoff games, alongside Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello; Brad Richards is relegated to the fourth line and about eight minutes of ice time per game; and the power-play units do not seem to know enough to dump the puck in deep rather than try to carry it through a skirmish line of Bruins who take it away at every entry. Meanwhile, the Rangers who were present Wednesday spoke in terms of gumption. "We're mentally tough in here, and there's character in this room," said Ryan Callahan, the team's captain. Zuccarello said: "We just have to come in confident, believe in each other. Yeah, it's a challenge. We just have to stay positive. Darroll Powe, recovering from a suspected concussion and uncertain if he can play Game 4, recalled when he was on the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers team that rallied from 0-3 down to beat the Bruins. "When you're going to climb a mountain, you're not going to sit at the bottom and just look at the top and be like, "How am I going to do this?" " Powe said. You're going to look at the five, six feet above you and go at that first. You have to focus on what's right in front of you, otherwise you'll never get where you have to go. GETTING READY FOR GAME 4 Defenseman Anton Stralman and forward Chris Kreider did not practice Wednesday after being injured in Game 3. Ryane Clowe, recovering from a suspected concussion, skated Wednesday and may be available as a grinding, forechecking winger. Marc Staal, recovering from an eye injury, also practiced; he or Matt Gilroy will replace Stralman, who had emerged as the Rangers" No. 3 defenseman during the playoffs.