Ladislav Smid might have wanted to familiarize himself with the fable of The Scorpion and The Frog before leaving himself defenseless after challenging Sean Avery to fight at 11:18 of the third period of yesterday’s 8-2 Rangers’ victory over the Oilers at the Garden.
Smid, the frog in this case, skated across the rink to confront Avery after No. 16 rubbed out teammate Colin Fraser with a check against the wall. There seemed to be a couple of words exchanged before Smid began to skate away with his hands down, apparently believing the challenge he’d issued had been declined.
That’s just when Avery, the scorpion, popped him in the face and knocked Smid down to the ice, thus setting off a brawl that resulted in 126 minutes in penalties to eight players including Brandon Dubinsky, who was on the bench when he was grabbed by Fraser.
Brian Boyle fought with Theo Peckham, who, like teammate Ryan Whitney, had tried to chase Avery into the runway between the benches after he’d been escorted from the ice. Brandon Prust exchanged punches with Zack Stortini in an elongated bout at center ice. Fraser tried to get at Dubinsky after winding up in front of the Rangers’ bench, and was held back by Steve Eminger.
The Oilers charged that Avery had told Smid, “No” or “Next shift” before suckering him. Avery, who got 17 minutes (roughing, fighting, misconduct), told The Post only, “That’s what they said? Funny.”
It’s not likely any of the Edmonton combatants thought any of it was funny, not when that incident was combined with their own embarrassing play that allowed the Rangers to score three times within 2:08 beginning less than a minute after the fights to turn a 5-2 game into an 8-2 fiasco.
“I think it was pretty gutless,” said Steve MacIntyre, who was in the box at the time following his second fight with Derek Boogaard. “It just shows you what kind of guy he is. He’ll get his [from] somebody who is bigger and tougher. He’ll get what’s coming.”
“Avery said, ‘No, next shift,’ ” said Peckham. “Then he turned and suckered him. I definitely made a little mistake [trying to get down the runway], I went a little wonky, but we’re family and sometimes you have to make a little stand for yourself.”
Rangers coach John Tortorella declined to provide his take on the incident that could provoke a phone call to Avery from NHL VP Colin Campbell.
“There’s so much to decipher, it wouldn’t be fair for me to comment,” the coach said.
Blueshirts center Erik Christensen told Edmonton TV it looked as if Avery “sucker-punched” Smid. “It looked to me like he suckered him; I’m not going to deny it,” Christensen then told The Post. “I mean, everyone could see.”
Said Fraser, who took the hit that started the chain reaction: “If you don’t want to fight, fine, but you can’t punch the guy after [saying] no.”
Obviously neither Fraser nor Smid got to the part of the fable where the scorpion tells the frog, “That’s my nature.”
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Marian Gaborik recorded his first three goals of the season in his fifth game overall and his second game back in the lineup after missing 12 with a separated left shoulder for his 11th career hat trick. Gaborik scored twice on breakaways and once by sliding the puck shift-side after walking out from behind the net.
“It’s kind of a relief to get the first one,” said Gaborik, who added an assist while playing with Christensen and Alex Frolov, all of whom went plus-five. “It’s important for our line to click.”
Frolov also had a four-point day, with two goals and a pair of assists, while Christensen contributed three assists. The goals were just the third and fourth for Frolov, who ended a 10-game drought.
“I expect more from myself and the organization has higher expectations for me,” said Frolov, who had changed his sticks before the match. “I had been feeling a lot of frustration. This is huge for me.”
The Rangers bench was so short over the final 10 minutes that Matt Gilroy moved up from defense to play his final four shifts on right wing, getting an assist on the Ruslan Fedotenko goal that made it 7-2 at 12:59. . . . Brian Boyle has now doubled his previous career high in goals, getting his eighth overall and fourth in the last five games by converting Fedotenko’s 2-on-1 feed to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead at 7:37 of the second. That goal followed Gaborik’s second by 25 seconds. The Oilers had previously scored twice in 28 seconds at 2:45 and 3:13 of the period for a brief 2-1 lead.
Martin Biron, who has started five of the Blueshirts’ first 17 games, has allowed two goals or fewer in four. The last time Henrik Lundqvist, who is likely to play tonight in Pittsburgh after recovering from a bad head cold, missed two straight at Garden was Dec. 12-17, 2006, when Kevin Weekes got the starts. The Rangers, 9-7-1, play six of their next eight on the road, where they are 5-2.