The issue of goaltender interference that has been a prominent one for the Rangers the first two weeks of the season is on the radar of the NHL hockey operations department in Toronto.
“We have monitored it from the outset of the schedule,” NHL Executive VP Colin Campbell wrote in an e-mail in response to an inquiry from The Post.
“There are various issues. We have goalies’ teammates driving players into the goalies, we have goalies embellishing interference AND will embellish more when and if we instruct our officials to increase the standard of calling contact more.
“And there are other issues involved with goalie contact. Having said that, we are and always have been conscious of this aspect of the game and when we feel it is necessary, we will make the adjustments.”
The Post has learned that the topic will be re-examined at the next meeting of general managers. The discussion is likely to include the possibility of a rule change that would give referees the discretion to call a double minor on blatant fouls.
The Rangers and coach John Tortorella believe that increased enforcement is necessary after watching Henrik Lundqvist be knocked down repeatedly over his first seven starts. Indeed, following Saturday night’s 4-1 victory in Toronto, the head coach essentially put the league on notice that if referees did not begin to enforce a stricter standard, the Rangers would deal with the issue themselves.
“Either something has to be done, or we’ll have to take care of it our way or a different way, because the way guys are coming in on Hank now is ridiculous,” Tortorella said.
Lundqvist was not in nets for last night’s match at the Garden against the Sharks, with Steve Valiquette instead making his second start of the season. But that did not alter the Rangers’ awareness of the situation.
“It used to be automatic that the referees would call a penalty if you knocked down the goaltender, but it looks like they’ve been letting it slide,” Donald Brashear told The Post.
“If that continues, there are a couple of ways we can deal with it. We can either address the situation with the player who runs into our goaltender or we can do the same thing to them that they have been doing to us by driving to the net without stopping.
“What comes around, goes around, right?”