NHL

Tortorella puts fight in Rangers

If you’re reading these words, then chances are overwhelming you don’t need to be told that hockey isn’t a morality play.

Last night’s opening-line brawl at Madison Square Garden between the Rangers and Devils during which all six starting forwards paired off three seconds after the puck was dropped — that included Stu Bickel, who was moved up from defense to the middle for the express purpose of dropping his gloves, let’s not mince words any more than the pugilists pulled their punches — wasn’t about what’s right or wrong for the NHL, let alone what’s right and wrong for the youth of North America.

It was simply a statement made initially by Rangers coach John Tortorella, who took umbrage at Devils coach Pete DeBoer’s decision to start his Cam Janssens-Ryan Carter-Eric Boulton line, and then backed up by Bickel, Mike Rupp and Brandon Prust in this high-stakes match the Rangers won 4-2 to extend their conference and division leads to three points while clinching a playoff spot with 10 games to go.

Everyone who has watched the Rangers this season knows they have fight. Last night they fought back, not even so much against the Devils, but against the lethargy that had contributed to a 2-5 slide that had thrown the Rangers’ first-seed status into doubt.

Tortorella chose his words carefully after the game but fooled no one in saying, “It’s none of my business,” in response to a question about the Devils starting lineup, which, truth be told, was not such an extraordinary choice in this 2011-12 Battle of the Hudson that had featured eight fights in the first five games of the series, including a pair two seconds into the Feb. 7 match at the Garden.

The fact is, Tortorella’s pregame words to his team were far different than the ones he used with the press.

No, the Rangers did not violate the “What we say here, it stays here” credo under which they operate behind a Blue Wall of Silence and they did not reveal their coach’s words, but they sure left no doubt as to the message he sent before sending them onto the ice.

“I can just say that it got us going,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “The guys were ready to go.”

Brandon Dubinsky had been scheduled to start in the middle, but because he suffered facial injuries in a fight with Ryan Carter the last time the teams met in Newark on March 6, the center moved back to the blue line for the opening draw while exchanging places with Bickel in a shift orchestrated by Tortorella before the game.

“I think it was them trying to send a message and us answering,” said Dubinsky, who scored the game’s first goal at 1:11 (while at center, not on defense) and played his most forceful match of what has been a terribly disappointing season. “We don’t want to do that, it’s stupid, I saw it a lot in the Western Hockey League but never in the NHL, but kudos to our guys who stepped up.

“It takes big [ones]. I’m glad we responded.”

When Bickel fought Carter, Prust fought Janssen and Rupp fought Boulton, the Rangers responded straight out of the movie “The Untouchables.” The Devils came with a metaphorical knife, so the Rangers pulled a metaphorical gun.

“We’re not going into the game saying, ‘We need to send a message,’ ” Rupp said. “We know what our team is about. We know the opposing team gets dibs on the starting lineup.

“It’s just a response to that.”

Last night at the Garden was no morality play.

Last night was Tortorella as Eliot Ness.