Janne Niinimaa was back in the Islanders’ lineup last night; no ramifications lingering from his being kicked out of practice by coach Steve Stirling Monday morning.
“I spent some time with him; we had a nice chat,” Stirling said. “It was no different than a spat I had with my wife. An hour later, we talk it through and it’s over; you put it behind and you move on. It’s part of life, when you’re together a lot.”
Niinimaa was told to leave the ice Monday after making a mistake in a drill and then asking for it to be run again. Stirling said yesterday it didn’t matter who was wrong, and that what was most important was that the coach had the last word.
“As I explained to him, my feeling was the same feeling I had when I benched [Brad] Lukowich,” Stirling said of his decision to bench the defenseman two weeks ago after taking a pair of bad penalties against the Rangers. “Wrong place, wrong time, wrong moment; it was the timing of it.”
Stirling reported the incident to GM Mike Milbury later in the day.
“I’ve told him before I was close to kicking a couple of guys off and I didn’t and he said, ‘Well why didn’t you?'”
The Islanders, who went into last night’s game against the Devils losers of five of seven games, are a team on edge. Niinimaa is just one of several defensemen to struggle in the first month of the season.
“I reminded him he can have an influence on this team because of his experience, and because of his ability and because of his passion,” Stirling said. “When that was over and done with, we’re counting on Janne. He’s one of our top veteran guys. We’re counting on him to get 20, 24 minutes, kill penalties, and be out there against top lines. I reminded him of that, and I reminded him of late, his game has been better.”
The coach also lamented the fact that his booting Niinimaa was a rare sign of life from his team.
“I wish there were the odd fight in practice,” Stirling said. “There was some emotion in the practice [Monday], but unfortunately the emotion was from me.”
evan.grossman@nypost.com