NHL

Rangers benching Prust for ‘stupid penalty’

CALGARY, Alberta — Brandon Prust is as honest as they come both on and off the ice. So it was no surprise when the Rangers’ winger indicted himself for taking a “stupid” offensive-zone, holding-the-stick penalty at 13:18 of the first period, after which he was stapled to the bench until the 1:20 mark of the third in Tuesday’s 4-0 victory in Vancouver.

“Nobody likes to sit and watch, but as a team we’re taking way too many penalties that we’re trying to cut back on, and my penalty was stupid, so I paid the price for it,” Prust told The Post following the team’s light skate in Vancouver that preceded their flight here for tonight’s match against the Flames.

“I was told why I was sitting but I didn’t need to be. I know it was a stupid penalty.”

Coach John Tortorella initially declined to explain why Prust’s penalty became the breaking point following an opening three games in which the Blueshirts were shorthanded 19 times, with not one of those situations caused by an infraction taken by No. 8. But after a moment, the coach explained it perfectly.

“There are penalties we are going to take through aggression and we want to be an aggressive team, but the penalties we take through absolute stupidity and nonsense have to be rectified,” said Tortorella, whose team was shorthanded nine times in the victory fashioned by Henrik Lundqvist’s brilliant, 40-save night.

“I’m not going to be benching guys left and right. I trust our hockey club. I want [everyone] to understand that. But we can’t have those kinds of mindless penalties, because we get enough the other way.

“You know, Pruster has done a lot of heavy lifting for this hockey club,” the coach said. “I don’t want anyone to lose sight of that, what he’s done for us and will continue to do.”

Prust, who made the headman feed to Michael Del Zotto that initiated the rush on which Michael Rupp scored the first goal at 2:22, also was hit with a most questionable boarding call at 4:09 of third when Canuck defenseman Andrew Alberts crumpled the moment he was touched.

“The guy stepped into me and fell,” said Prust, who finished with 7:12 of ice. “If the refs are going to call all that stuff, then I really don’t know . . .

“Forechecking is my game. I go in with one hand on my stick going for the puck and the other I have up on the guy’s back. I never take a penalty forechecking. I never run guys from behind. The guy lost his balance and I got the penalty.”

Though obviously not pleased with the call, Tortorella would not criticize it or what appears to be an overzealous crackdown on checking along the walls. The coach, however, left no doubt about what he felt about the play.

“We’re going to try and play the game the way we need to play,” he said, alluding to his club’s Black-and-Blueshirt mentality. “We’re going to continue to play that game.”

Even before being benched, Prust’s role had diminished over the first two weeks of this season. A primary penalty-killer last season who tied for third in the NHL with five shorthanded goals, Prust has been supplanted in the man-down rotation by Derek Stepan.

“Penalty-killing is something I have to earn,” he said. “I have to work for that.”

larry.brooks@nypost.com