The bad blood between the Rangers and Devils, which saw three simultaneous fights 3 seconds into Monday night’s game, did not only involve the players. Rangers coach John Tortorella was seen on camera cursing at Devils coach Pete DeBoer for starting the game with his fourth line, meaning Tortorella was forced to do the same.
Yesterday, Tortorella’s message to DeBoer was simple: Shut up.
After Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Rangers, DeBoer called Tortorella a hypocrite for having done the same thing earlier in the season in a game in New Jersey. But Tortorella was not in an agreeing mood.
“I think Peter needs to jog his memory as far as the starting lineups that I’ve put in over in their building,” Tortorella said after practice yesterday. “And really basically just shut up. And I need to also. I think the situation [Monday] night was disrespectful to players and I think we took a backwards step.”
The prior two times the Rangers played in New Jersey, Tortorella started his scoring line. It was only in the first meeting between the teams this season that Tortorella started his fighting line, which produced a fight 3 seconds into that game.
“[Fighting] is a big part of the game, but it doesn’t need to be manufactured,” he said. “In that type of game, there was going to be fights. It’s really gotten old for me, the staged fights.”
The Devils on Monday sent out Eric Boulton, Cam Janssen and Ryan Carter, who have a combined four goals this season and 22 fighting majors. Tortorella responded with Brandon Prust (19 fighting majors), Mike Rupp (12) and Stu Bickel (11).
“I get put in a position where I have to put a lineup like that out and I’m not sure what is going to happen if I put my top players out, so I have to answer the way I think I have to answer,” Tortorella said. “Just look at the two lineups and some of the things he has done through the games here. Again, I don’t want to coach his team but just shut up.
“That [garbage] at the beginning of the game, to try and manipulate it into it, I just don’t think it is right for the game. Let the players decide the game. I don’t think coaches should be putting player into situations where it basically dictates fighting.”
Lost in all the drama was the fact the Rangers clinched a playoff berth. Unlike the previous two years, where the Rangers had to sweat it out until the final day of the regular season, they did it with 10 games remaining. But you can expect to see the intensity level just as high as it was Monday night when the Rangers face the Red Wings tonight, because both teams are fighting for playoff positioning.
“We are still playing for home ice advantage, still playing for first in our division and most of all trying to get our game where it needs to be heading into playoffs,” captain Ryan Callahan said yesterday. “We need to continue to get better and hit our stride as we head into the playoffs.”