After four months of inconsistent and underachieving hockey for the Rangers, yesterday at practice the pot finally boiled over.
About halfway through the session, the ever-instigating Sean Avery and the ever-beleaguered Marek Malik dropped the gloves and had themselves a good old intra-team fight. It was a quick bout, with only a few sparse punches landed before the 6-foot-6 Malik fell on top of Avery and teammates intervened.
It stemmed from a drill where Avery was driving hard to the net and was picked up by Malik. Malik then lost his stick, forcing him to use his two free hands to keep Avery away from the goal and eventually take him down to the ice.
As the two collected their scattered equipment in the aftermath of the scrum, Avery could be heard yelling at Malik, “Play the game like a man.” Malik responded in kind, but the real message delivered was clear: Going into tonight’s game against the Ducks at MSG, this team is not happy.
“It doesn’t matter who it is, if you’re doing a drill that involves a confrontation and you’re holding your ground and preventing (the other) from getting to the net, stuff happens,” coach Tom Renney said. “I think it’s good to see that level of intensity. We let it go for a while for a reason and that’s good.”
A fight in practice is fine? It’s tough to think a team that has won five of its last seven games is in turmoil, but the eruption of emotions seen yesterday only indicates the powder keg that this locker room become.
Malik is a much-needed defenseman who has missed the last three games due to a left knee injury. Avery is a team sparkplug who played his worst game of the year on Tuesday in a 4-2 thumping by the Kings – his former team and, at the time, the team with the least amount of points in the NHL.
“There’s nothing between us,” Malik said after practice of his relationship with Avery. “If somebody feels he wasn’t hit right or something, you have to step up. It’s not the first or last time it’s going to happen. From the worst, you have to take the best.”
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Blair Betts was continuing to receive medical attention yesterday for his sore left knee that took him out of Tuesday’s game during the first period. He will be a game-time decision. . . . Dane Byers was sent down to Hartford yesterday after playing his first NHL game on Tuesday, while healthy scratches Ryan Hollweg and rookie Greg Moore both skated.
bcyrgalis@nypost.com